Rye Castle Museum

Catch up here on Events,  Opening Hours and Additions at our two sites, the Museum Website,  Book News,  Opening Hours,  The Women’s Tower Project and Volunteer Opportunities…..

 (There’s lots so keep scrolling down!  The newest posts are available under Said About Rye   and Notable People.)     

News Flashes

The Talks Programme for the coming year is now available.  Click here and get out your diary!

Click on Events at right for photos of the Let’s Build a Roof and Captain Pugwash Birthday Party events.  on 3rd July.

There will be no Coffee Morning in September.

The main reason for the break is that there will be so many Rye Festival and other events in September. We will reesume our popular monthly Coffee Mornings in October.

Exploring Rye with Brian Hargreaves

The book  is out and available at both sites as well as in town.  It includes nearly 100 of Brian’s aplendid drawings of Rye buildings and details.  Price:  5.50

Reminders:  The Ypres Tower is now open all day.

The East Street Museum is open all day on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays only.   Please note however that it can be opened by special request during the week.  Please contact the Museum: 01797 226728, or info@ryemuseum.co.uk   

We run entirely on the good will of volunteers    If you aren’t already a volunteer steward do think about joining us!     See the note below under On Being a Volunteer.   Also below:  About our Museum Sites and additions to the Rye Museum website.    

Recent Events 

 July 3 

 The two events on this day Let’s Build a Roof and the Captain Pugwash 60th Birthday Party were captured on camera.   Go to Events at right for summaries and photos.   A third set of photos — of a wedding in the Medieval Garden will appear shortly.   

DO COME AND SEE THE NEW CAPTAIN PUGWASH DISPLAY.   There are information sheets to tell you more about John Ryan and Captain Pugwash;  thanks to Anthony Kimber of the Rye Art Gallery for sharing these with us.    You will also want to visit the Rye Art Gallery where you will find Pugwash cartoons and other artwork of John Ryan.    The celebration is a joint Rye Museum and Rye Art Gallery effort.   And the Museum is now selling Captain Pugwash books!  Click here for titles and prices.   

July 13th Visit to Bexhill Museum   

Visiting other museums always generates ideas for our own and that was certainly the case with our group visit to the newly refurbished Bexhill Museum.   Julian Porter, Rother District Curator,  was our guide,  explaining the history of the museum’s development as well as showing the various new exhibition areas: the Costume and Social History Gallery and the new Motoring Gallery.  The eclectic natural history and other cultures exhibitions were  of special interest to some of us as was the accessible archive sections with its many files and interactive computer displays.    While we  were admittedly jealous s of the space,  funds and full time staff possesed by that Museum,  we did enjoy the visit and collect some ideas for use here in Rye.   We ended the afternoon at the De La Warr Pavilion for an excellent tea and a look at their exhibitions, in particular the 60 sculptures of the artist Anthony Gormley in 12 poses making up the Critical Mass roof-top exhibiton.  

Watch out for the announcement of next year’s museum visit!   

Earlier posts give details of earlier events.

About our Museum sites 

 Ypres Tower site

The latest addition at our 13th century  Tower is the Rye Tower Embroidery, an informative (and amusing) history of the castle commissioned as part of the Ypres Tower bid for Lottery money  and created by 20 members of the Rye Stitchers over the last four years   It’s a splendid piece of work worth a special visit/revisit to the Tower.       

A reminder of what else is in the Tower     

In the dungeon there is a display of Arms and Armour, with helmets to try on, and swords to try and wield.  On the ground floor are cells once used for prisoners: one still reminds visitors of  the stark conditions endured by prisoners but another now displays  Rye pottery and a third has become a Still Room  with herbs and spices from the Middle Ages (complementing  the Medieval herb garden in the old exercise yard).  The splendid new addition of the Rye Tower Embroidery now holds pride of place above the ground floor fireplace.     

On the first floor there are beautifully sewn scenes of Rye: the Millennium Embroidery as well as  a relief map of the surrounding  countryside over the centuries and a map showing the scores of shipwrecks off our coast.    From here you can go onto the lookout, designed for looking out for the enemy!  You can look down onto the Medieval Herb  Garden which you can visit later, and across to the Women’s Tower which we are currently raising funds to repair so it can house more of our exhibits.   Built to keep the women and children prisoners when they were separated from the men in 1837, it is thought this may be the only such prison left in the country.     

What is in the East Street Museum?     

There are  displays on many aspects of Rye’s long and prestigious history:   as a  leading Cinque Port,  its shipbuilding, trading and fishing industries;  politics (there are seals from five reigns),  education,  celebrations,  the town’s celebrated pottery and mosaic ware,   domestic life and pastimes . . .   A popular feature is the town fire engine complete with wooden wheels, leather buckets and hoses used between 1745 and 1865.   There are paintings and photos as well as artefacts.    An enlarged and relocated Captain Pugwash display has just been launched (see above).  Judging from the length of time some of our visitors spend here and the comments in our visitors’ book, our Museum is well worth visiting.     

For more on this site, click on Museum Sites at right.     

Publications

The list of Museum books, booklets, maps, postcards and DVDs has recently been added to the site.  Click here to see it.   We are not at present able to provide a postal service, but the full range of titles is available at the East Street site and our topsellers at the Ypres Tower.   We have just added Captain Pugwash titles to our stock,   Scroll down for more Book News.     

 On being a Volunteer

Far from being onerous,  stewarding  offers a chance to meet  interesting visitors and become better acquainted yourself with our exhibits and Rye’s history,  so if you would be willing to help out, please contact the office  info@ryemuseum.co.uk or ring 01797-226728.  You may also want to ask about other ways to help, for example by joining the Rye Muses who organise events which help raise funds, or the Education Committee, or the Gardening group or . . . . .  The full list of possibilities is quite long!    

Women’s Tower Project:  Have you bought a brick (or two?), a stone (or two?)

There are still bricks and stones waiting to be sponsored.   Do you have a sponsor’s certificate yet?   You may collect as many as you like!     Rye Town Council at its meeting of 26th October voted to contribute £5000 to the Women’s Tower Project and the process has already begun:  English Heritage has approved plans; we have paid for architects’ plans with the RTC grant;  proper recording, preservation and storage of items kept in the Women’s Tower is  nearly completed . . . .     

 We are most fortunate to have the  services of Linden Thomas,  a  professionally qualified and experienced  conservator,  recently retired to  Rye, to carry out the important work of looking after the items we will want to display in the restored tower elsewhere) and ensuring they are properly documented and cared for.     

If you too would like to be part of this project and have not received a leaflet providing details and a form, do visit either of the Rye Castle Museum sites or contact the Museum  ( 01797-226728 or info@ryemuseum.co) You would have the satisfaction of knowing you had helped to save a special building of our town so it can not only be used by Ryers but also provide yet another attraction for visitors.      

Rye Museum Website   

There are now nearly 100 articles and some improvements to design and navigation.  (Just added, for example are two pieces on E F Benson by Allan Downend, and another on Geoffrey Bagley, largely by Rosemary Bagley under Notable People), plus more photos under Events.    More to come of course,  so be sure to visit– and revisit.   Click on any of the Local History headings and you will be taken to a page headed by a list of subtopics already available.    The newest will always be on top.   Sample the lot, or click on one that interests you.     If you have writing/editing/web  talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know!  jlfloydeltc@gmail.com      

We are 100 years away from Edwardian Rye.   One new ‘post’ on the site will give you  an idea of the changes in Rye since then,,  Click here to see it.   

Book News

Exploring Rye with Brian Hargreaves  is now available at both museum sites.  Nearly 100 precisioned line drawings of Rye buildings and details!  Price:  £5.50.

The Museum is now stocking Captain Pugwash books.  Click here for titles and prices.   

Do you have your copy of  Rye in World War II?  This was the subject of  Jo Kirkham’s Address at the 2009 Remembrance Day Service at St Mary’s Church, Rye.   Following requests from a number of people for a printed version of the address,  an illustrated booklet  is now available at £3.50.      

Copies may  be purchased at the Rye Heritage Cente  or  at either of the Museum sites.   All proceeds will go to the Women’ s  Tower Project so that this part of Ypres Tower, home of the Rye Museum, can be restored and re-roofed  and brought into active use.  

New looks at Rye

A lovely little book for all Ryers:  John Griffiths’  Shapes, Colours and Materials: a look at buildings in Rye, Rye Conservation Society. £6.99.   Buying through the Museum helps the Museum!       

Do you have these yet?

These both deal with Rye before 1660–the result of years of research, deliberately complementary,  must-haves for anyone seriously interested in Rye’s history.  Both available from Martello Bookshop–or ask at the Rye Library     

Gillian Draper, Rye: A  History of a Sussex Cinque Port to 1660, Chichester: Phillimore, 2009    

David and Barbara Martin, Rye Rebuilt: Regeneration and Decline Within a Sussex Port Town, 1350-1660. Romney Marsh Research Trust, 2009