Rye Castle Museum

The History of  Rye Castle Museum

by Allan Downend, slightly adapted from the booklet An Introduction to Rye Castle Museum ( 1999) with some additional information from Geoffrey S Bagley and Kenneth M Clark The Story of the Ypres Tower and Rye Museum (1975).   

The idea of using Rye’s former jail (the Ypres Tower) as a museum was first mooted in 1889 by the Rye Literary Society but it was to be another forty years before a Rye Museum was established and sixty-five before  the Ypres Tower became its home.     

It was Leopold Vidler, author of A New History of Rye (1934) , who managed to establish the first  Museum in Battery House, just north of the Ypres Tower during his time as Mayor of Rye (1927 – 28).  The building had been purchased by Rye Council in 1925 from the War Office and it was let for use as a museum at £26 a year.   Leopold Vidler was its first and only curator and entrance fees were fixed at 6d for adults and 2d  a head for parties of not less than twelve persons.  Like the current Museum it was entirely self-supporting and had to rely on visitors, volunteers and fund-raising for its continuation and development.     

Ypres Castle (Watercolour by W H Borrow)

With the outbreak of war in 1939 the Museum’s most valuable items were placed in temporary  storage around the town and in 1940 it was closed.    

On September 22nd  1942 Battery House, and the adjoining property was  severely damaged in an air raid; at the same time the Ypres Tower lost its pyramidal tile roof .   Battery House was declared unsafe and the undamaged items still housed there were removed to safer repositories including the Ypres Tower.   At the end of the war all the salvaged exhibits and cases were moved to a Corporation garage,  there to remain until 1953.    

To celebrate the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953,  Geoffrey Spink Bagley and Wally Cole of the Rotary Club of Rye and Winchelsea set up an historical exhibition featuring hitherto unseen and forgotten exhibits and reminding people of the museum’s collection.   It was decided to re-establish Rye’s Museum. 

The survivors of the pre-war committee, plus ‘new blood’, set about finding new premises.  Geoffrey Spink Bagley took a leading role in this movement and became Honorary Curator after the death of Leopold Vidler in October 1954.  He held the post until his death in 1992, a period of thirty-eight years.   It was decided to house the Museum in the Ypres Tower which was now empty except for the mortuary in the basement.   Repairs carried out under War Damage provision had made it  habitable.    The newly re-formed Museum Association took a lease from the Council for the ground and first floors but the financial resources immediately available amounted to  £6 — the balance still standing to the credit of the old Museum Committee., Thus all the help in setting up the  Museum came from volunteers and donors of  fittings and equipment.     From this  seemingly amateurish start the Museum opened at Easter 1954 and  has continued to develop thanks to further bands of volunteers ever since.   

Geoffrey Spink Bagley great enlarged  and enhanced the Collection and wrote extensively about Rye and the surrounding area.  With a team of volunteers he changed some of the displays each year and in 1975 the museum won an Award for its work and displays.  The emphasis was still on local history but the catchment area was widened to include Romney Marsh and the villages surrounding Rye.   

In 1992 Margaret Bird becane Honorary Curator and realised that the damp conditions in the Tower that had begun to arise during the 1980s were beginning to affect the Collection.  She initiated the process that led to the Museum acquiring 3 East Street and then the development of a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for the money to convert that building into a Museum;  It had been a bottling factory for beers etc. and was llinked to the property  known as  Gill’s Loft and  Help the Aged  (now Age UK ,  the new name for Age Concern and Help the Aged) in the High Street where the beer was originally sold.  By the time the Museum Association bought the building the shop had been sold as a separate property and the old factory was in considerable disrepair.   

Ypres Tower today (drawing by Brian Hargreaves)

The Lottery Bid was successful and work began on creating the Museum in East Street as well as more work on the Tower.  The major work on the  structure of the Tower was funded by Rother District Council and took place between 1996 and 1997.  Most of the Collection having gone into storage in 1995,  the work at East Street took place between 1997 and 1999.  In 1998 the new Curator, Allan Downend started work on the setting up of Museum’s East Street site.  A team of volunteers helped unpack the Collection when it returned from store in late January 1999 and by the end of March, by dint of both hard work and enthusiasm,  they had the exhibition ready for viewing.  The new Museum opened to the public at Easter 1999, forty-five years after its post-war re-opening. At the same time new panels and displays were completed at the Tower.  

Recent visitors to both the Ypres Tower and East Street sites will know that there have been many additions and improvements over the last decade, the details of which can be found on other parts of this website .  And once again we are appealing for help in raising  funds for building restoration, this time for the Women’s Tower, once used to house women prisoners.   (Click on Museum Sites and Latest News at right.) 

They Took Over The Town Hall

Slightly adapted from an article in Rye’s Own 161 ( Dec 2007)  

Seeds of revolt

By 1825 the Lamb family had dominated politics in Rye for 100 years, providing the Mayor 23 times out of the 25 since the turn of the century, Most of the jurats and freeman were either family or supporters. This had been achieved by the ‘Freeman’ system introduced in the days when Rye played a very active part in building, maintaining and manning the Cinque Ports Fleet. There were about 40 Freemen of Rye and only a Freeman had a vote. 

To become enfranchised there were only two ways. By birth as the eldest surviving son of a Freeman or by election.  One citizen a year was voted in as a Freemen by Jurats and Freemen on Mayoring Day.  It became a natural thing for other educated men who resided and had businesses in Rye to protest against a system that was not democratic and given to corruption.  In that year of 1825 a movement began in Rye which eventually led to ‘greater democracy  over the whole country. 

Leaders of the revolt were the Meryon Family, descendents of French Huguenots and trade rivals of the Lambs. They were assisted by William Holloway, later to write Holloway’s History of the Town and Port of Rye and Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon of London.  Holloway and Dr. Meryon’s researches supplied the historical ammunition on which the forthcoming campaign would be based. 

On the 4 May 1825 over  fifty ’Men of Rye’ as they named themselves, applied to a King’s Judge and were granted the right to take the oath of allegiance and be admitted to all rights and privileges belonging to the town. Their names were enrolled. They requested to be admitted to future meetings of the Corporation but their request was refused.  On the 15 May over twenty more householders took the oath and had their names enrolled. 

Two elections, Two mayors

Nothing more happened until 28 October. Early that morning the men of Rye made th eir way to the spot in the Churchyard where  the old cross had stood and where, tradition had it, elections had previously taken place. Among the party were two Freemen, John Meryon and William Prosser. who  owed no allegiance to the Lamb’s as they had been admitted as Freemen by birthright. An election was held with Mr. Meryon voting for himself and Mr. Prosser voting for Mr. Meryon.  John Meryon was nominated as Mayor of Rye. 

No one knows how much the Lamb administration knew of the ‘goings-on’ at the sign of the old cross but the following Monday when they met to vote in the Rev. William Dodson,.(a non-resident Freeman related to the Lambs by marriage) as the new Mayor, the Meryon party were there and demanded that their man  be sworn in as Mayor. All hell broke loose. The request was refused by the retiring Mayor, William Phillip Lamb, and amidst the hubbub, Mr. Whitton, the Men of Rye’s solicitor, swore in John Meryon as Mayor.  John Meryon and his party then retired from the Chamber and Rev. Dobson was elected by the supporters of the Lamb’s. 

John Meryon returned to the Town Hall on 7 September and his party requested that Mr. Dobson swore Meryon in as the true Mayor of Rye. This request was refused but the fun was not to end there. 

On Tuesday, 18 October, the  Men of Rye gathered in Market Street to enter the Town Hall.  They  were admitted ; we know not  by whom. Suffice to say that John Meryon, accompanied by his 12 jurats, all clad in scarlet robes, entered the Hall and barricaded themselves in. Shortly afterwards . Dobson and his jurats arrived and demanded the bench be vacated to them but the boot was on the other foot and they were refused entry. They retired to Mountsfield Lodge, the residence of W. P. Lamb, to consider their position. 

For six weeks ‘Mayor’ John Meryon resided at the Town Hall, doing the work of the council.  He administered justice and even held an inquest on a man who had hanged himself

The short Mayoralty of John Meryon and his jurats came to an end when a King’s Court order required them to hand the Town Hall back to the legal Mayor.  They vacated the Chamber leaving all intact but important information _,had been gleaned from the papers held at the Town-Hall,  including proof of a pact that had been signed by five jurats as far back as 1758  to ensure the Lamb faction would always win elections.- 

This was but the start of the battle. A newspaper “he Rye Gazette, claimed by some to be a ‘scandalous rag,, fought on the side of the reformers.  But despite the pressure to extend the franchise, progress was very slow because  new Freemen came mainly from friends and supporters of the Lambs . There was  still a great discontentment among sections of the Rye community.  

Last reading of the Riot Act

The discontent was amplified in 1830 when local farmers, who were unhappy about the new lock being built to dam off the Military Canal,  were supported by the people of Rye and, in a desperate show of their disenchantment with the system as much as in support of the farmers, did £3,000 worth of damage (a huge sum in that time) to Scots Float Sluice. The Riot Act was read and bullets were fired over the heads of the rioters before they dispersed. This was the last recorded time the Riot Act was read and thaccompanying guns actually fired in England. Whatever the justification it proves that Ryer’s are  very determined lot when they are roused.

Change was demanded throughout the Cinque Ports by this time and soon the whole country was following Rye’s lead and demanding reform.

End of a dynasty

In 1832 William Phillip Lamb became the last of the family to lead the Corporation, the dynasty reached back over 100 years to 1723 when James Lamb was elected Mayor of Rye. During those years a Lamb had occupied the Mayoral seat no less than 73 times!  It all came to an end with the Reform Act of 1836. The men of Rye saw their efforts bear fruit and a wider franchise resulted in a fairer society.

A Celebration Reform Dinner was held at The George Hotel where Colonel Evans told the assembled guests, which included many of the original ‘Men of Rye’ that “The odious system is destroyed. The Nation’s liberties are won. Words cannot adequately express the feelings this happy event inspires.”

John Meryon never became Mayor but forty six years later another member of the Meryon family, Charles Pix Meryon, did.  Charles is now best remembered for bequeathing what we know as the Further Education Centre on Lion Street to the town of Rye in perpetuity for educational purposes but he has another claim to local fame:    Just one year after the death of Reform leader William Holloway in 1870, Charles was elected Mayor and was to become the longest incumbent of Rye’s Mayoral seat in the history of the town. He was elected for nine consecutive years and only vacated the seat on his death in December 1879.    Cherles had married Mary Brocket( 1827-1906) in 1866 in London.  Unfortunately a single child died young so there was not another Meryon to carry the name.

End note:

 There is more to be told in future posts about the Meryon family of  Rye,, in particular Dr Charles Meryon, physician and companion to Lady Hester Stanhope, niece  and companion of Prime Minister William Pitt  the Younger (who became Warden of the Cinque Ports) during many of her yearas intrepid traveller in the Middle East where she was known as ‘Queen of the Desert’;     and  Dr Edward Meryon,  an eminent physician who made a systematic study of muscular dystrophy (Duchenne’s disease) some years before the man after whom the disease was named. (Many think it should have been called Meryon’s diseease.)   As for Charles Pix Meryon, he did not die a poor man. His  executors were William and Edwin Dawes who valued  his estate  at £46,199 10s 2d.’   Charles’  widow Mary  resumed her maiden name in 1896 to become Lady of Spains Hall in accordance with her father’s will.

With acknowledgements to William Holloway’s History of Rye and Leopold Vidler’s New History of Rye.

 Slightly adapted from an article in Rye’s Own 161 (December 2007)  

Rye’s Oldest Coaching Inn 

When I think of Christmas in Rye I always think of The George as this is where the lights are traditionally turned on and by who other than the big man him self, Father Christmas.  

The George is Rye’s oldest Coaching Inn, originally established in 1575. The George was not always in this position in the town, it moved to its current site in 1719. It has been gradually added to over the years and now consists of a series of interconnecting buildings all surrounding a central courtyard. 

The current ballroom was built in 1818 as an assembly point for farmers who came to market. This grand room has catered for many political meetings and civic functions. Here it was where the great “pro-Rye” movement of the town celebrated when the Parliamentary Reform Act came into power, allowing a fairer system of democracy giving all men of Rye a chance to vote. Many banquets were held in this imposing room over the years and one’s mind can easily travel back in time and imagine the finery of the ladies and the elegance of their gentlemen in the days of Empire when Britain ruled vast areas of the world and the wealthy had the wherewithal to afford the very best clothing and jewellery. 

The George has many special features including the original fireplace which can be seen in the Tap Room.  The Gill Parliamentary clock still takes pride of place on the wall dating to the 1700s. These large face clocks get their name from an Act of Parliament that put large taxes on clocks, pricing them out of range of the average man in the street. Parliamentary clocks were installed in Public Houses and Inns for the benefit of the masses who could not afford the tax. It was a sure-fire way of attracting customers.  

A cupboard resembling a dumb waiter is actually an 18th Century wig store, I don’t think many people will be using this today. 

The George has entertained many people,  not just town’s folk :   three King Georges, Wellington and the Mayor of London . . . .    Around 1778 the first long distance coach, the Diligence, embarked on 16 hour journeys between Rye and London.  At the beginning of the 20th Century a certain room within The George was used as a masonic lodge, but over time The George became run down, being sold between different hotel groups. 

In 2004 Alex and Katie Clarke purchased the famous Inn and after a whole 12 months of renovation it re-opened in 2006.  The George has been brought up to date but still retains its atmosphere and history. So when Father Christmas switches the lights on at the Christmas Festival, just take a little thought as to the great history The George has to offer our wonderful historic town. 

Let’s Build a Roof:
an event staged by students of Rye College in aid of the Women’s Tower Appeal

On 3 July, students from Rye College staged a highly successful event at the Ypres Tower as part of their contribution to the Women’s Tower Project.  Twenty-five  students, mostly fromYears 8 and 9 (aged 13-14), came to share their acting, singing, writing and selling talents with the Rye community and a number of visitors to the town.   There were performances of their version of the John Breads story, Murder in the Churchyard (complete with slaughter of  pig,  the murder and the hanging of butcher John Breads);  three ghosts read, sang and frightened people climbing the Tower stairs,  all the cells were occupied by prisoners, one of whom screamed at her murderer so loudly it brought more passersby to the Tower,  and a commanding  gaoler paraded  the prisoners singing mournful folk melodies outside the Tower now and again.   The students had even provided mouldy bread, the prisoners’ meagre diet (+ ale) if they washed their hands and feet.

There were sales of cards, artwork and bookmarks, all created by the students, as well as a short story collection inspired by the history of women prisoners — also produced by the students. There were also games, a raffle and a well-stocked cake stall.  The cakes too  had been made by students.  One with a splendid icing depiction of the Women’s Tower on to was a prize in the raffle.  The whole afternoon was a truly wonderful effort and many visitors remarked on their pleasure in seeing young people so supportive of this important Rye project – and bringing such life to the Tower.    We hope to see Rye College students there again!

Can you match the brief descriptions just given to the photos?  The churchyard murder,  the hanging of the butcher and the murdered prisoner are included.   

  ‘Geoffrey Bagley, Esq. Ryer Extraordinary’

This was the subtitle of a 1973 Down Rye Way column  by the then editor of Rye’s Own, Christopher Davson.  And as you will see from what follows,  Geoffrey Bagley really was  ’extraordinary’.        The article  begins:    

‘ It was with some trepidation that your reporter stepped aside from Church Square into one of Rye’s many secret corners  [the Bagley home] to offer, on behalf of Rye’s Own   and its readers, respectful congratulations to our Honorary Freeman designate.  Geoffrey Bagley will be the only living Freeman of the Town, and the first to receive this rare honour for 15 years.  And was he not also a former Mayor, Baron and Speaker of the Cinque Ports Confederation, County Councillor, Honorary Curator of  Rye Museum . . . .  [and he might have added prolific author on aspects of Rye, cofounder of the Rye Society of Artists, and much more]. ’    

The article goes on to summarise the many achievements of Geoffrey Bagley’s pre-Rye days (see the article by Rosemary Bagley below) and then reports that, wanting to concentrate full time on his painting,  he  ’chose Rye as a nice quiet place for an artist to settle down and paint in’  and ends with a story which might make  Ryers lament still  more that he is no longer with us:    

‘ Well, he has settled down, and the annual Royal Society of Artists exhibition at the F.E. Centre proves to us that [despite all his other activities] he still paints.  But some people do not have it in them to stay quiet!  After only about 5 years Bagley rose up in wrath.  The then Vicar of Rye and the Rye Town Council wished to place the tombstones around the churchyard walls of St Mary’s and have mown grass.  To oppose this a committee was formed on which Geoffrey served; the plan was defeated.  Geoffrey was then asked if he would be willing to stand for Rye Town Council.  He agreed and was duly elected .  

The Churchyard was saved, but Bagley was launched on a new public career from which he could not turn back as there were other threats to Rye.    He moved on from the  Rye Planning Committee and three happy and popular years as Mayor  to East Sussex County Council on which he served for 12 years, much of them as Chairman of the County Records Committee. And he saw to it, there, that the County Planning Officers treated Rye with proper respect and indeed love. ’  

Rosemary Bagley provided a more detailed account of the multiple impressive careers of husband Geoffrey Bagley in a 2002 Rye’s Own article (No 144, January 2002). It is slightly adapted here, with one of the line drawings by GSB which accompanied it.    

Geoffrey Spink Bagley 1901- 1992

 Beginnings 

Geoffrey  Spink Bagley was born on 3rd November 1901 at Pontefract, Yorkshire, the son of architect Frank Spink Bagley and his wife Elizabeth Husband.  The family interests ranged from industry and glassware to locomotives.  After Wakefield Grammar School, Geoffrey began architectural training but soon transferred to the Nottingham School  of Fine Art, and in 1924 moved to London to share a studio with Bernard Hailstone who was to become a well-known  portrait painter and wartime artist.  After a precarious free-lance existence as a commercial artist with exciting periods of poster  design and book illustration he was offered a job with Batten Ltd, engravers, the Toronto  design specialists.  This led to association with the then internationally known ‘Group of Seven’ and the opportunity to improve his painting skills with gifted artists.  The varied Canadian scenes (French Canada, Labrador Coast and the sub-Arctic) provided plenty of material for his work.   

Geoffrey  Bagley as Canadian Artist 

In 1934 he became Art Director of a famous firm of fine-paper manufacturers, Howard Smith Paper Mills Ltd. in Montreal– they supplied the paper for Canadian bank notes –and he became more involved with typography and printing design.  He quickly began to win awards and by 1939 his work was being shown in Chicago, New York, the National Gallery of Canada and elsewhere.    With the outbreak of World War II he became Staff Artist to the Canadian government’s Wartime Information Board, producing posters for propaganda purposes and for recruitment to the Royal Canadian Navy.  Later he was appointed to the National Film Board of Canada as Art Director of their Graphics Division.  During the war period he also recoreded life on the North Atlantic Convoys for the Canadian Navy.  A large collection of his work 1939-45 including paintings, drawings and documentation was donated  to the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa in 1985, the 75th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Navy..    

Geoffrey Bagley as Artist of Rye  

The Courtyard, The Mermaid Inn, by Geoffrey Spink Bagley

While seconded to the Royal Canadian Navy as an official War Artist, there were opportunities to visit England to compare notes with his opposite numbers in the Crown Film Unit of the war-time Ministry of Information — and these probably influenced his decision to  return to live in England.  He settled in Rye in 1948, to pursue ‘straight’ painting, lithography and drawing. He explored the area, discovering Romney Marsh with its ever-changing light and fascinating collections of churches which he painted many times.  These paintings show his appreciation of church architecture and skill as a draughtsman.  He loved Dungeness with its collection of boats, shacks, various forms of habitation and flotsam and jetsam on the beach.  He had a particular love of the sea and everything connected with it.    

His other love was Scotland with its mountains and locks and he spent many painting holidays amongst this varied scenery.  And he was still pursuing special interests in the study of rococo art and architecture in Germany, Austria, France and northern Italy.   

Geoffrey Bagley and the Rye Society of Artists  

Geoffrey had by now become acquainted with Wally Cole and Leslie Davie and a number of other talented Rye artists.  In 1951 a decision was made to hold an exhibition in part of the Boy’s Club in Mermaid Street, Rye.  They chose to call themselves the RX Group, RX being the registration of the local fishing fleet.  A year later they joined up with other younger artists and together formed the Rye Society of Artists and held their first exhibition at the Further Education Centre in 1952.     

Geoffrey was involved with the RSA for forty years, being a founder member, regular exhibitor and one-time Chairman. His work has been exhibited many times over the years.  In Rye, for example, there was a joint exhibition with Leslie Davies at the Easton Rooms in 1971 and a Retrospective Exhibition at the Stormont Studio in 1982 entitled Ships, Nudes and Architecture.   

What was called at the time the ‘final accolade’ to a man who achieved so much in his lifetime was the Retrospective Exhibition held at the Stormont Studio, 16th October – 20th November 1993, which was attended by over 2,000 people. Here was displayed his mastery and skill in working in all media:  oil, watercolour, pastel, crayon, charcoal, pencil, scraperboard and litholgraphy.    (At left is Net Houses Hastings.)  Some of the works displayed are included in the permanent  collection of the Rye Art Gallery.     

There has in fact been yet another exhibition since , this time of his work as a commercial artist in Canada (1930-1945) at the Turtle Fine Art Gallery in 2004.   The exhibitions have sometimes surprised people familar only with his civic achievements in Rye.  

Geoffrey Bagley as Museum Curator, Mayor and Civic Leader, Historian and Writer

Apart from his painting, Geoffrey found time to re-establish the Rye Museum and serve as Honorary Curator for 38 years. The Museum won a National Heritage Award in 1975, mainly due to Geoffrey’s meticulous attention to accuracy and detail and his artist’s eye for display.    

In 1956 he was elected Mayor of Rye and held that post for two further years.    He was also a Speaker of the Cinque Ports, a County Councillor, a JP and as we learned at the beginning of this article, in 1973 he was the last person to be elected a Freeman of the Borough of Rye.  He  served on numerous committees. In 1956, the first year of his mayoralty, he was also President of the Rye and Winchelsea Rotary Club, being named  a Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International in 1989.  He wss a Trustee of the Rye Art Gallery.    

Among Geoffrey’s most lasting contributions to Rye are the publications pertaining to Rye and its environs which he wrote and illustrated.  The list of these is long and includes:  

Book of Rye, The
Connoisser’s Guide to Rye, A
Edwardian Rye
Old Inns and Ale Houses
Pictorial Guide to Romney Marsh, A
Prospect of Rye. A
Rye Church Clock
Story of the Ypres Tower and Rye Museum, The William Holloway  

The Book of Rye  was presented to the Duchess of Kent when she visited Rye in April, 1982