Local History

Jan 13 2010

Bonfire Nights in the 19th century


Researched  by ‘Rya’ (Kenneth Clark) and published  in Rye ’s Own,  September 1999    

Nights of Terror

The commemoration of Guy Fawkes’ abortive attempt in 1605 to blow up the Parliament buildings with the King, Lords and Commons in them has persisted for so long that it deserves to rank among the historic features of the town, although the date on which it was first celebrated is not known with certainty. The methods and extent of the festivities to-day do not bear any comparison with the ‘glorious fifth’ of the latter half of the last century, when boats laden with lighted tar barrels were dragged through the narrow streets.

In fact, from the late 1840’s until the mid 1880’s the 5th of November celebrations were ‘a time of terror’ among numbers of the inhabitants.   The subsidence of terror is remarked on by  contemporary commentators. Here is an example:

 Time is said to work  and it would be strange if to such a night of disorder, there was to be no end. A change appears to have come o’er the scene, and there is little to report of the proceedings on the night of Tuesday last [November 5th, 1889]. Whilst the town has not filled up . . . to the extent of Hastings in its daring smuggling propensities, in which the law has set at defiance, it has the notoriety that, once a year, the roughs in hundreds have openly defied the powers that be and challenged them to stay their hand in their diabolical work of destroying all moveable inflammable property anywhere in the neighbour-hood.

The adventures of some who once joined in the reckless sport is, nevertheless, somewhat interesting, as they relate to the incident which gave them a name for daring among their fellows. These characters no more feared the officers of the law on that night, however strong they might be, than the famous ‘ Death and Glory Boys’  in  their military prowess cared about facing a foreign foe. The incident of  the  Gunpowder Plot, when Guy Fawkes and his confreres were so providentially discovered ere the work of anarchy had arrived at a successful issue, has been well preserved, but that, we are inclined to believe, was little thought of by them. In the removal of many, and the decrease of some, great changes have naturally been effected, and there are not a few who have of late seen the folly of such boisterious conduct, or, through advancing years are sobered down by the stern realities of life, for it must be remembered that it is among those more distinguished as ‘hobbledehoys’  that these games have been carried out.

The work of the evening generally commenced with a gorgeous street procession, in which were numbers arrayed in the most grotesque and ludicrous attire conceivable. Had matters stayed there, there would have been little to chronicle : but it was the after proceedings. . .  

We well remember the night when Superintendent Butcher was felled to the ground with a loaded bludgeon and taken away insensible (which blow, without doubt, shortened his life). On the same night the only police constable we then had (now Superintendent Bourne) was tripped up, and had to go home with a sprained ankle, so that for the rest of the night the town was at the mercy of these desperadoes. Disgraceful conduct was shown to the late Mr Payne by the mob. As he was anxious to save his boat, he boarded it, and kept watch. He was thrown over the side into the mud by the roughs, and badly used, and that cannot be eradicated from the memory of those who witnessed the occurance. Finding that it was impossible to remove the craft, it was burnt at the water’s edge.

Attempts at reform: Failed!

Several attempts have been made to organise, so that the stealing of boats, etc, should be dispensed with, and the celebrations carried out in an orderly manner.

In 1879 an organised Society was formed, and on the 5th there was a splended procession: but some refused to join, and consequently the ‘originals’ carried on the old game. About ten o’clock the two processions encountered each other in Cinque Ports Street, and the ‘originals’ being the stronger of the two parties, the tug upon which the boat of the others was being drawn was seized. For a time a melee seemed to be imminent, clubs being freely used. This was the night on which the famous-model of the polysphemic ship, invented by the Rev C.M.Ramus, and valued at £40, was stolen from a meadow near the Rectory in Iden, and carried triumphantly to Rye, where it was quickly destroyed. In 1880 a boat at the Fishmarket, serving the purpose as a hut, in which a man known as Punch Moore  resided, was destroyed, and  the man, resisting,  experienced some rough handling from the mob

Another man secured his boat by sinking it, to save it from the flames.  In this year  Mr J.C.Hoad a shipbuilder, was struck by the desperadoes because he remonstrated with them for taking his timber tug.  A blow rendered him insensible and gave him a scalp wound. Not until nearly five o’clock next morning was the town quieted.

In 1881, Mr Crowhurst’s boat and Mr MilIsom’s casks were taken; and in the following year, 1882, Mr Hayle’s pleasure boat removed to his back premises in the High Street, for saftey, was deliberately taken and burnt, in spite of all pleading to the contrary. The County Police at the Chemical Works, in 1884, will have cause to recollect that date, owing to the powerful attack made on that place by the lawless gang. That night was a memorable one. Several stolen barrels had that year been discovered and removed before the night, and the roughs were somewhat exasperated, and so they, with a determined spirit broke down a boat,  which formed a lodge at Messrs Smith’s Shipyard, and carried it off triumphantly. The Crusader’s boat [the steam tug's dingy] they next intended to have, but Superintendent Bourne and P.C. Hanley, with a plucky staff of specials, prevented it being taken, for which act the Superintendent sustained several violent blows and was rendered insensible, whilst Henley’s helmet was battered in. The next year the boat was actually taken and destroyed, and five suspected of taken part were brought before the Recorder, but dismissed.

Mr J.C.Vidler’s pleasure boat was taken from a lodge in Ferry Road. But as the Police would not allow the guilty ones to pass over the bridge, a fire party destroyed it, and it was thrown over the bridge into the Tillingham.

 

Calmer Nights

Since 1885  trouble has been on the decline, and nothing very serious has taken place. On Tuesday evening last, partially disguised, they marched through the streets, the old banners again being used, and several lighted tar barrels illuminated the scene. A number of extra police were on duty in place of special constables, as in former years, but no interferance was made by them although the yelling and hooting of the youths which formed the procession was very great, and it was easily to be seen that the demonstration was very weak as compared with former years. Only one boat was burned, and that, we understand, had been purchased.  It had been dragged from the Fishmarket, across the Salts, to Bridge Place, where it was lighted, and very quickly drawn through the streets, the party at  times running through the narrow throughfares at a dangerous pace. A little before midnight, a barrel, containing a quantity of tar was stolen after some violent but ineffectual resistance by the owner,  Mr Watts, from his premises in Church Square (and we hear prosecution is likely to follow); it was taken as far as the Post Office, where it allowed to burn out. There was an amount of horse play, rotten eggs being some plentiful, and banter with a certain of the PCs  whose conduct was certainly not to its credit,   Three members of the force who remained deserve praise for the cool way in which they carried out their duties. Shortly after midght Supt Tobutt asked that the hose of the Brigade who were on duty in case of emergency should be used to quench the remains of the fire in front of the Post Office, and after s trouble in obtaining water it was extinguisdthe and the doings of the Fifth were at an end.

Such high goings on have now  disappeared. To day, under the auspices of the  Bonfire Boys  the Fifth is so far as is humanly possible an orderly and well organised, full of  merriment but utterly devoid of its former terror.

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Cliff Bloomfield contributed these supplemenary notes 

  1. The tugs referred to, were used  to carry logs to and from the saw pits, consisted of a pair of large wooden wagon and a fulcrum also served as a draw bar.
  2. I remember my Grandparents referring to the night when Rye was alight. In fact a gang entered the yard and set on fire a fishing smack named The Rye lying in a  berth. The site became the Winchelsea Yacht Centre.
  3. The Chemical Works of those days refined products from coal that arrived via the Harbour branch line,  Tar and pitch had many uses, coating timber buildings, making  surfaces etc.
  4. My grand mother used a simple little verse for skipping  :-

Old Punch Moore and two or three more,
Went down the river on the dunikin door,
The dunkin door began to crack
So old Punch M said we  better get back.

Punch Moore, as we discovered,  lived in a shack with an upturned boat for a roof at Fishmarket. This method of roofing a shed shelter was not uncommon.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

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Jan 11 2010

Edwardian Rye


by Kenneth Clark

This article is taken from Rye’s Own, December 2006. 

The Soup Kitchen is Open

Pauperism in Rye remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform is this country was confined to filling the most glaring gaps in the existing social system. The bed-rock of social provision was to be found in the Poor Law, first enacted in the time of the Tudors, and re-enacted in 1834. Administered locally by Boards of Guardians and financed from the local rates, the Poor Law provided a minimum subsistence under conditions which were deliberately designed to deter all but the utterly desperate from applying for it.

 It is little wonder, therefore, that the poor feared the day when, through ill health, misfortune or old age, they would no longer be able to earn their living for, unless they had been extremely thrifty or possessed children who were in a position to help, the workhouse was the only place for them. Once in such a house, the inmates found themselves placed under the jurisdiction of a master and matron. Forced to wear the workhouse uniform, none could leave the premises except on special occasions. Entertainments and treats were provided from time to time by well meaning local men and women, but freedom and liberty–the twin concepts of a full and complete life–were denied. Many of the town’s leading men served on the Board and introduced many reforms,  but these were of necessity limited in scope as the rates would not have borne the cost.

 In 1982 Mr. Lord, one of the Guardians, attempted to persuade the Rye Board to allow well-behaved men and women, who had entered the house  through misfortune or no fault of their own, to wear ordinary dress when they were granted leave of absence instead of the workhouse garb, which he described   ‘as a badge of misfortune, or, possibly, disgrace’. The privilege was to be bestowed for obedience to the master or matron. Voices were raised against discriminating between the well-behaved and the others and the proposal was adopted  after much discussion– without the offending rider.

When a crippled man aged 26, who had been in the workhouse for six years, asked for a testimonial to Messrs. Day and Martin in order that he might obtain a box and brushes and earn an honest living as a boot-black, the Board readily granted his request. The world was still, as Disraeli had remarked, for the few– the very few.  Sometimes the proceedings were enlivened by a little humour. In support of an application for increased relief, a well-known Rye character stated that she was 609 years old!

Life outside the workhouse was far from easy for although prices were low, so too were wages. When unemployment or illness struck, there were no welfare services such as exist in the modern  state, to come to the rescue. However there was succour from those who believed they had a responsibility for the welfare of the less fortunate. An outstanding example is provided by John Symonds Vidler whose generosity knew no bounds. The following description of the re-opening of the soup kitchen in 1907 well illustrates the need and the way it was met in adverse times. 

On Saturday the Town Crier was busy visiting local districts, and announcing to the crowds that gathered at the tintinabulous call of his bell that tickets for soup and bread would be distributed to deserving causes at the Town Hall in the evening. At six o’clock sharp, on the evening in question, a large and representative party of the fishing and labour fraternity, who had been thrown out of employment and were otherwise afflicted by hard times, assembled at the Town Hall. The cases were heard by officials who made orders for the necessary distribution of bread and soup. No less than 122 tickets were given and it was decided that the soup kitchen, in Cinque Ports Street should be opened twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays during the cold weather. Accordingly, great preparations were made at the Soup Kitchen headquarters, which building, we believe, was formerly used as the Town Water Pumping Station, the pumping power of which was ‘generated’ by a couple of horses harnessed to mechanical contrivances.

The two large coppers, each capable of holding 70 gallons of soup, were cleansed, the fuel was got ready as also were the extensive fireplaces. For four solid hours on Monday a couple of muscular Ryers were kept continually on the go peeling potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips and onions. A large quantity of split peas  also to be used in the soup, was soaked in water for the greater part of 24 hours whilst the joints of meat and bones were cut up small.  All night and all morning until eight o’clock, when the kitchen was declared opened, did the two brawny impromptu cooks attend to the roaring and crackling fires and to the steaming cauldrons. Unceasingly did they manipulate the “stirrers” and spoons, some four feet in length.

At the opening time, and perhaps a little before, the soup was bubbling and gently steaming, and was declared by the connoisseurs to be “ready”. On the doors of the building being thrown open the savoury odour of soup permeated the neighbouring streets, from which came, scurrying and running, small boys and girls, carrying such handy receptacles as ewers, water cans, pots, basins, buckets, and other articles. . . .

To be continued . . . .

Jan 10 2010

Tunbridgeware and its Connection with Rye


by Vivienne Challans

This article appeared in RM&LHG Journal 61

What is Tunbridgeware?

The exact origins of Tunbridgeware are not well documented but it seems it was originally made by cabinet makers of Tonbridge before the springs were discovered in the early 1600’s and brought into being in the town of Tunbridge Wells. Early ware made for visitors to the Spa was mainly wood turned on a lathe, at first without decoration and later painted with lacquer. However the craft changed considerably over the years. The second half of the 18th century saw the introduction of veneered ware where thin slices of different coloured woods were inlaid to form a design or picture. In the 1830’s the art of tessellated mosaic work, which is made in a completely different way to a normal veneer inlay, began.

The industry flourished and as the mosaic designs evolved so the range of products grew from banjos, to furniture and yo yos. As with any art form there were a number of famous producers, each with distinctive designs–names such as Wise, Fenner and Nye, Thomas Barton, Robert Russell, Henry Hollamaby and Boyce Brown and Kemp.

The production of mosaic work was painstaking and slow. Firstly a design in the form of a chart would be made of the subject with a key to the wood to be used– as in the example designed by Thomas Littleton Green, my grandfather.  Many patterns were used: geometric, cube,  berlin, woolwork (popular in Victorian times); patterns used for banding patterns, landscapes, animals, flowers and well-known buildings.

Next, and this is where this method is so totally different, the tiny pieces of wood which had been cut by hand were assembled according to the chart until a row was completed, which was then glued, put under pressure and left to dry for at least twelve hours. The next was assembled in the same manner and so on until all the rows in the chart/pattern were completed. These strips were then assembled in order with reference to the chart to form a block with desired pattern running its length rather like a stick of rock. It was from these blocks that the ‘veneers’  were cut and used on the items to be decorated.

Large designs could comprise six, nine or even twelve smaller units and take weeks or months to complete, Some of the designs of blocks representing a view like the Pantiles such as that made by Boyce, Brown and Kemp could contain up to 25,00 tesserae. The veneers cut from a block were about 1.6mm) 1/1681 thick and a seven inch block could yield about 70 to 80 identical veneers. Apart from a lathe which was used for turning buttons and knobs etc, the circular saw that cut the veneers was the only other piece of machinery. The glue was important too to ensure a perfect finish was obtained. Animal glue used was warmed in a double boiler glue-pot to the correct temperature to ensure the consistency gave a good join.

Finally the finished pieces had to be varnished–another meticulous job as there was no ‘quick-dry’ version available and several coats of shellac varnish might be required.

The wood used came from around the world, probably chosen for the colours they offered. The names of some of them sound like poetry: rosetta (rosy brown), pedouk, mulberry (yellow), kingwood (deep brown/ purple), holly (white), purple heart, ebony, fustic (yellow), sycamore, walnut and cherry to name a few. There were about three hundred woods used as the colours all came from the wood itself. Even the green was not dyed but came from oak that had been attacked by a fungus. I am told that my father and his sisters were taught to be on the lookout for green oak whenever out walking in the countryside.

My grandfather, Thomas Littleton Green. was the last person to make Tunbridgeware on a commercial scale. My memory of my grandfather is a little hazy as I was quite young when he died but I remember a kind, gentle humoured man who was nice to be with. He was born in Maidstone in 1892 and went to Tonbridge School before qualifying as an engineer. During the First World War he served in France in the Royal Flying Corps. He married at the end of the war and honeymooned at the New Inn, Winchelsea.. It was about this time he met Richard Kemp, a son of one of the partners of Boyce, Brown and Kemp,  a leading manufacturer of Tunbridgeware from the late 1870’s until the Second World War.

Richard Kemp and Thomas Littleton Green formed a partnership and Rye Mosaics was born. Kemp brought with him skills learnt from the family business and also, it seems,  a quantity of veneers. Sadly this partnership did not prove to be a total success and in 1934 was dissolved.  Green took over sole management of the business. He proved to be an enterprising manager and introduced electricity to operate his saw, lathe and sander. He had a workforce of three and the business not only sold souvenirs to visitors to Rye but also supplied retailers.

In April 1932 his work was displayed at the Ideal Home Exhibition, Olympia. The Evening News wrote.

Among the wonders of Olympia are many examples of romantic old crafts. And of all of them the most puzzling is that of the Old Rye Mosaics. Samples of them are displayed among fancy iron work near Princess Elizabeth’s little house – penholders, inkstand needle cases, snuff boxes and so on all made from infinitely small fragments of coloured wood.

 The paper quotes Green as saying

 They are made from naturally coloured woods, of which we have about 300 sorts in stock now, including English green oak, apple pear and other fruit trees, holly, mahogany, yew, rosewood, plane and laburnum.

Whilst Rye Mosaics could not match the production of the commercial businesses in Tunbridge Wells it nevertheless produced a wide range of smaller items,  from boxes for playing cards, matches, stamps etc to mirror and picture frames, pin trays, yo yos, brooches .ringstands, needlecases and bookmarkers.  Green used a number of traditional Tunbridgeware designs including the perspective cube work. He also used the Hollamby technique of spelling out words in mosaic and a range of boxes were produced spelling words such as ‘Rye’ to sell to visitors to the town. Green also developed a range of designs that included the clock and jacks of St Mary’s, the windmill, a parrot, a butterfly and a  design for the coronation of Edward VIII that was subsequently modified for the coronation of King George VI.

Thomas Green did not mark any of his wares but many of his boxes use a characteristic tongue joint at the corners not found in use by other Tunbridgeware makers. That Green possessed skill and artistry is evident in the necklace that can be seen in the Rye Castle Museum. He is quoted in the Evening News as saying (when talking about the art of Tunbridgware):  ‘

There is a penholder which has nearly 1,000 tiny fragments of wood in its intricate ornamentation and a string of beads with 540 pieces to each bead.

It seems that Lady Maud Warrender, who lived at Leasam House, visited Rye Mosaics with her friend Queen Mary who apparently made it known that she would be pleased to accept a necklace made of Tunbridgeware beads. Green made one for Queen Mary and a replica for his wife, which can be seen in Rye Museum. The outbreak of war in 1939 brought the production of Rye Mosaic works to a halt as my grandfather joined the Royal Engineers.

The location of Rye Mosaics in Market Road was approximately where the entrance of Jarrold Close is today. Sadly, during the war a bomb fell close to the workshop causing devastation and irreparable damage to both stock and the workshop.

With thanks to my father and Brian Austen’s book Tunbridgeware and related European Decorative Woodwares


 Vivienne Challans 2007

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Jan 10 2010

Rye, New York


8 Coats, 7 Shirts and 4.1 0s.
How three men from Rye started a city in America

Slightly adapted, with additions,  from an article  in  Rye’s Own No. 115 (February 2004). Information for the Rye’s Own article came from a 1970s newspaper cutting sent to Julie Fuggle by her American pen pal Mary Toohy who lives in Rye, New York . Julie and Mary have been writing to each other since the early fifties when Miss Lister at Rye Youth Club supplied names of pen pals to members.   

In 1660 three men originally from Rye in Sussex, England,  living in Greenwich, Connecticut, purchased a tract of land  on the beautiful shore of Long Island Sound from Mohegan Indians. It cost them  eight coats, seven shirts and four pounds ten shillings sterling.  Little did the three–Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Studwell– realize that they were thereby starting  the oldest settlement in what is now affluent Westchester County, New York.  Confusingly, it now  includes both the Town of Rye and the City of Rye, separate municipalities. The former has three times the population of the latter, which in turn has three times the population of Rye, Sussex.

At the time of the arrival of the white man, the area now known as  Rye, New York was one vast unbroken wilderness, with the Mohegan tribe its sole inhabitants. The Mohegans had set up camps on the shores of brooks entering Long Island Sound.  Over the next few years, Disbrow, Coe and Studwell, joined by other Greenwich settlers, expanded their holdings from the initial Peningoe Neck to include Manursing Island and these eventuallyencompassed entities now  known as the City of Rye, the Town of Rye, Harrison, White Plains and parts of Greenwich and North Castle.  A neighboring town named Hastings was merged into Rye in the 1660s.

In 1665, Connecticut merged the various settlements under the name of Rye,  home of those early settlers from Rye, England.  For nearly one hundred years the official location of Rye seesawed between the State of Connecticut and that of New York.  In 1683, Rye was ceded unwillingly to the Province of New York by King Charles II as a gift to his brother, the Duke of York. But when a New York court severed the Harrison area from the settlement in 1695, the Rye colonists rejoined Connecticut in protest. In 1700, Rye again became part of New York by royal decree, this time permanently. The New York State Legislature officially established the Town of Rye boundaries in 1788. 

 The majority of the first settlers were farmers and millers. Within a few years, several docks or landings were built from which fishing craft sailed the Sound to Oyster Bay and New York. Eventually oystering became one of the major industries. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), they took up positions in Rye for the defence of Connecticut when the English under General Howe landed on Throggs Neck. Yet Rye  remained a secluded community for two centuries after its founding,   It was more than fifty years after its inception in 1660 that the first school was established.  

During the first half of the 18th Century, the community started to flourish.  In 1739, the Rye-Oyster Bay ferry was inaugurated. In 1772 the New York-Boston Stagecoach made its initial run with Rye as an official stopover.  The milestones from New York City were fixed by Benjamin Franklin in 1763; some still exist. In the mid 1800s, when the New Haven Railroad was completed, Rye became a popular summer resort for New Yorkers, Horseracing on the Flats (Rye Beach) was a special attraction. With the coming of rail transportation, Rye experienced its first real growth. For the exorbitant sum of eight cents, one could travel all the way to New York City, 22 miles to the northeast

As the oldest settlement in Westchester County, the City of  Rye boasts  many historical landmarks, most prominent being the oldest house in the county, built in 1663 and still standing at Milton Road and Rye Beach Avenue. The Square House, built in 1700, is properly dubbed ‘a portal to the history of New York State’. It is here that travellers, first by foot, then by horse and later by stagecoach, stopped for refreshments and rest at Haviland’s, as the house was then called. The Square House became the source of world news and attracted settlers from all over the area.  The ‘greats’ of American history made it a point to break up their travels and spend some time at the Square House. Records show that John and Sam Adams visited the house in 1774, and, from his personal diary dated October and November 1789 , President George Washington not only slept there once, but twice. The Marquis de Lafayette visited the Square House in 1824.
By 1904  Rye boasted two schools, five churches,a  library and a population of 3,500. It was during this year that Rye was incorporated as a village. In 1942  Rye village adopted the status of a City, leaving the Town of Rye.  

Today the City of Rye is a unique conglomerate of the old and the new, an unusual blending of a 300 year history and a suburban community  with every modern facility.  Its official seal displays in the centre a ship copied from the seal of Rye; around it are a peace pipe, a torch of freedom and significant dates in the city’s history.    The city is home to a museum and an  historic amusement park, the Rye Playland, which is also designated as a National Historic Landmark.

 Our town of Rye and the City of Rye, New York, are in regular communication; there have been exchange visits and exchange gifts.  Each is proud of the other.

To come:

There is also a Rye (as well as a Winchelsea, Brighton, Hastings  and St Leonards) in Victoria, Australia, and another in New Hampshire and . . . .   Not surprisingly for an important shipbuilding town, Ryers emigrated, and in Rye ships too.  There are more stories to tell about Other Ryes.

Jan 09 2010

Potteries in Rye


Adapted from an article by David Sharp

 There have always been Potters in Rye and some examples of medieval Rye pottery can be seen in the Ypres Tower. (More recent examples are displayed at the East Street site.) Potters were again active in Rye during the eighteenth century and a brick works and pottery existed at Cadborough Farm,  just west of Rye on the road to Udimore. The farm belonged to a Jeremiah Smith who was a hop grower as well as Mayor of Rye seven times. It was Jeremiah Smith who gave a William Mitchell the responsibility of managing the Smith’s Pottery at Cadborough. This was the beginning of what was to become Rye Pottery, one of the many potteries operating in Rye over the years.

Rye Pottery

 William Mitchell was in charge of Cadborough by 1834 and by 1840 he seems to have bought the pottery business from Jeremiah Smith. Mitchell was helped in the Pottery by his two sons, Henry and Frederick. By 1850 Frederick, together with William Watson, began to experiment with applied decoration which later became a feature of the firm. In 1867 the Mitchell brothers and William Watson won third class certificates at Hastings and St.Leonards Industrial Exhibition. In the following year Frederick Mitchell bought the land for Bellevue Pottery  in Ferry Road and it opened for business in 1869. Frederick’s pottery was either rather rustic in style or decorated with hop patterns. The latter became  extremely popular.

 Frederick died in 1875 but his widow, Caroline, with help from William Watson, continued the business for the next twenty-one years. Caroline used to produce copies of more famous designs and was well known for small items or knick knacks. The products of the pottery were known as Sussex Rustic Ware  from the Rye Pottery.  In 1882 Caroline asked Frederick’s nephew, another Frederick, to join the firm. He took over the pottery when Caroline died in 1896. This Frederick Mitchell died in 1920 and again a Mitchell widow, this time Edith, carried on making pots for a further ten years.

In 1930 Mrs. Ella Mills bought the pottery but essentially kept the lines the same. Bellevue Pottery closed in 1939 because night firing contravened the black-out regulations.

 After the war the pottery was re-opened by John and Wally Cole, pre-war London based studio potters, under the name of Rye Pottery. Adapting a seventeenth century decorating technique used on English Delftware they produced a range of pieces to fulfill the post-war craving for decorative as well as utility household ware. By employing Bert Twort, the pre-war thrower they still made a few traditional shapes, including the famous Sussex Pig.

Wally Cole took on two apprentices, David Sharp and Dennis Townsend, both of whom later started their own potteries. Rye Pottery continued to train young potters, including James Elliott who later owned Cinque Ports Pottery. In 1982 Wally Cole was awarded the MBE for his services to Craft Pottery. The Pottery has won many awards and made the commemorative ware for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. Wally Cole retired in 1978 but continued to produce his own studio pots until the end of 1997.

His son Tarquin took over in 1978. He changed the firm’s direction and moved towards a more fashion orientated market. This change saw the development of several ranges of Rye Pottery figures, including the famous Canterbury Tales series. In view of the considerable interest  shown in Rye Pottery,  from 1995 every piece ceived the decorators monogram. Before then only special commissions and commemorative  were signed.

Cinque Ports Pottery

In 1956  George Gray and David Sharp started the Cinque Ports Pottery at the Mint in Rye. In order for the potteries to expand,  the partnership was dissolved and in 1964 George Gray moved Cinque Ports Pottery to the Monastery in Conduit Hill. The Mayoress of Rye, Mrs. W.M.Macer, officially opened the new premises on May 30th of that year. The showroom was situated at the top of the exterior stairway on the north side of the building in what was once a chapel.

The Pottery remained under the same ownership until 1987 when it was bought by James Elliott, the former manager. Major alterations now took place. The ground floor was lowered to allow more than one level in the building. This entailed moving the kilns. A showroom was established on the ground floor, entered directly from Conduit Hill.

The Pottery now took on a completely new look. A public walkway was created which goes through the whole building enabling the public to see all the processes involved in the creation of the finished pottery. Entry to this walkway was through the external staircase where you then saw, through a partition, the hand throwing of the pots, the casting and drying, the spongers and fettlers at work, and moving downstairs the glazing and hand painting. There were guided tours of the Pottery by appointment, but the walkway wai open and free of charge to anyone interested in how the pottery was made.

The style of pottery produced  changed after the 1960’s. James Elliott, the designer, produced a new range called Country Gentlemen.  Cats were another speciality, and HRH the Princess Royal commissioned a pair.  The Pottery on Conduit Hill produced  a wide range of tableware and lamps as well. 

Iden Pottery

Dennis Townsend began his career in pottery in 1947 andin 1958,  after a gap of two years military service, he and his wife Maureen established Iden Pottery in  the village of Iden, north of Rye, where they lived. In 1964 they moved the business to Conduit Hill in Rye and expanded, taking on their first employee. They soon had the services of five highly skilled local artists who signed  their own pieces under the Iden Stamp. The pottery  sold world wide with the hand thrown pieces by Dennis Townsend proved highly collectable.  [Ed. note: This article is being editied in a  house in Perth, Australia where a large set of brown Iden pottery is used every day.]      

David Sharp Pottery

As noted above, David Sharp founded Cinque Ports Pottery with George Gray in 1956. When George Gray  moved to to the Monastery in Conduit Hill he retained the Cinque Ports name while David Sharp kept the Bonding Store in the Mint and started David Sharp Pottery. The staff, moulds and designs were split between them equally.

The David Sharp Pottery continued using traditional methods, mixing colours and glazes from base materials;  decorations were hand painted. All the pottery produced was to David Sharp’s own design and modelling. The Pottery gained a world wide following for the distinctive blue floral, animal and bird figures, individually designed, as well as painted wall tiles and  house plaques. In 1960 David Sharp made a ceramic plaque in relief depicting Rye Town Hall which was presented to Rye, New York in commemoration of their three hundredth anniversary. It is on display in their Town Hall.   

Potteries in Rye Today

The two potteries on Conduit Hill–Cinque Ports Pottery and Iden Pottery–are now gone; it is hoped that the vacated Monastery can be restored to serve as a cultural centre for the town.  Ferry Road now sports smart new flats where Rye Pottery once stood.    However,  a relocated Rye Pottery and the David Sharp Pottery are still very much with us,  one on Wish Ward, the other at the bottom of the Mint–opposite one another in fact,  which is convenient for the many visitors who still wish to view and purchase a bit of pottery from Rye.

Dec 22 2009

Pre-Roman and Roman Times


Jo Kirkham is the principal author of all Invasion Coast articles.

Pre-Roman Times

Stone Age Times: Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic

The southeast coast received many tribes from the ”continent” in pre- historic times.

Between 10,000 and 7,000 BC Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) hunters walked across the land-link which existed where the English Channel now is; they left stone tools and hand axes as testimony.   

During the Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) period–7000-4000 BC– the ice sheets began to melt and there was serious flooding — forming the North Sea and English Channel. 

Neolithic (New Stone Age) times, from about 4000 BC,  saw different tribes come across the sea from what is now Northern France and Belgium.  They brought   a ‘revolution’ in life style, having developed farming as a way to live, as opposed to just surviving by hunting and gathering as had previous visitors. 

There is evidence that from about 3000  BC two streams of culture met on the chalk downs of Sussex, one from the south-west, the ‘civilised’ Mediterranean world,  which has been named Megalithic  culture, and the other from the east, the outer edge of Neolithic Europe. The latter came in across ‘our’ coastline.

Subsequently individual peoples can be identified, for example the  Beaker Folk (about 1900 BC), named for their special burials in beakers,  and Wessex tribes  (about 1600 BC), noted for  their skills in designing and trading. A flint ‘factory’ has recently been discovered at Iden.

The Bronze Age is named for the times when the people had learned the skills of metal working – about 700 BC.  Iron Age folk came in waves between 500 and 50 BC. Collectively they have become known as Celtic  peoples.  Britain entered the ‘full Iron Age’ in mid first century BC when the Belgae tribe came from the lower Rhineland.

In our area there was a vigorous and technically well advanced ironmaking industry in existence, based on the Wadhurst Clay Ridge, above Hastings, which had iron ore and timber for charcoal. Ingots were shipped out by small estuarine ports on the Brede and the Rother to other parts of the Belgic south-east — coastwise to the Chichester-Fishbourne area, or to Kent, and across the Channel to Gaul. Other items exported to mainland Europe from our area were hunting dogs and slaves. Our district, around the mouth of the Rother, was the border zone between the tribes of the Cantii (or Cantiaci) and the Atrebates.

Roman Times

Julius Caesar’s Visits

In 55 BC Julius Caesar left Boulogne for Britain as, he said,‘it would be a great advantage to have visited the island, to have seen what kind of people the inhabitants were, and to have learned something about the country with its harbours and landing places.’ He arrived at Dover, but faced with antagonistic tribesman, he sailed on and landed further north with the help of his friend and ally Commenius. Bad weather and the onset of winter forced him to return to Gaul, but he had more ships built and returned in the summer of 54 BC.

The probable result of these two visits was agreement between some tribes and Rome and these arrangements led to increased trade. Caesar records that there was iron production in the maritime region of Britain -– based on Wealden iron ore, timber for charcoal and clay for the kilns being available. There was a great impetus given to iron production during the years that followed these visits, before the Roman Invasion. Indeed, it has been suggested that the existence of this iron industry, and the wish to own and control it, was one of the main reasons for this Roman Invasion.

Roman Invasion and Ironworks

In 43 AD, the Romans began to bring the country completely under Roman control when the Emperor Claudius sent an army which landed at Richborough. The invasion army is described as being in three sections and it has been interpreted that these were divided between Richborough, Dover and Port Lemanis (facing what is now Romney Marsh). After the passage of the Legions further North and West, this region, the land of the Cantaci, with its capital at Canterbury, became a core area for Roman control of Britain.

The Wealden ironmaking areas were ‘nationalised’ by the Romans very soon after the invasion. According to the latest research, they made it an imperial estate, controlled by Classis Britannica (the Roman Fleet), for over 250 years. There is much evidence of Roman ironworks in many local villages, for example Brede/Broad Oak, Icklesham, Beckley, Peasmarsh….. At Beauport Park, outside Hastings, remains of a Ro man bath-house built as  part of an iron-making complex, have been discovered and excavated, although the settlement which must have accompanied it has not yet been found.

The products from these works were sent along several Roman roads, built on the ridges, which linked the works. (Part of one of these was excavated at Icklesham some years ago.) The iron was then exported from the ports on the Rother and Brede rivers and estuaries.

Roman Remains

The most impressive and visble remains of Roman occupation are the ruins of Stutfall Castle, Lympne, 3rd-4th century A.D. fortifications that guarded the coastal inlet which allowed access into the marsh and rivers draining the eastern Weald. The fort was a link in the chain of Saxon Shore forts  constructed by the Romans along the English Channel to guard against increasingly frequent  pirate raids by the Saxon group of tribes during the third century AD.

 A list of 428 AD gives the names of 10 of these forts, and the system had been in place at least 100 years by then, under the command of the ‘Count of the Saxon Shore’. There is textual evidence that  ‘Riduna,’ half way between Portus Lemanis (Port Lympne) and Anderida (Pevensey), was Rye. 

Rome appears to have accepted that Britain was no longer part of the Roman Empire after c.410 AD.

For supplementary and further  information aww  http://www.romneymarsh.net

Dec 21 2009

Saxons, Vikings and Danes: 5th-8th centuries


by Jo Kirkham

The Dark Ages

In the late 4th century, the Romans had brought in mercenaries and their families to bolster the defence of Britain when the legions were being withdrawn.   By the mid 5th century, they had been joined by further waves of Germanic immigrants.

Some were invited by the British to help them in their defence, while others came seeking new land to settle. Many of them came into Britain across our coast. Vortigern, who ruled Kent, brought in Saxons under two chieftains of the Jutes, Hengist and Horsa, the first Saxons whose names are recorded. Initially Briton and Saxon seem to have existed peacefully–living in the same settlements and inter-marrying.

Inevitably, as more and more Saxons arrived in the late 5th century, ttheir demands for land bred resentment in the British. Between 450 and 600 AD there were frequent battles along our coast with many British defeats because  they did not co-ordinate resistance, except for a short period when an ‘Arthur’ was in charge. The border between Jutish Kent  and Jutish Sussex was approximately along the line of the River Rother, i.e. it was already, by 550 AD, a political and cultural border. 

In the next phase  the newly established Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fought for predominance.  The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 798 A.D. says that ‘Cenwolf, king of Mercia, ravaged the Kentish people and the people of Romney Marsh; their king, Praen, was taken, and they led him bound to Mercia, and had his eyes put out and his hands cut off.’

The Vikings

By the 8th Century there had been no significant invasions from abroad for 200 years. The sudden appearance of the Vikings in 793 AD, attacking Lindisfarne, was a violent shock. (The word ‘Viking’ is a generic term for Scandinavians — inhabitants of what is now Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.)  They and their longships from northern lands, which the Anglo-Saxons called ‘the force’ attacked the English shores, beginning in earnest in 835 AD. The harassment was in the form of hit and run raids: a landing was made, villages pillaged, the local armies  were fought and defeated, and the raiders went off with their plunder. They rarely stayed for more than a few weeks and seldom went more than 15 miles inland.

Many of these attacks were across ‘our’ coast. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that in 841 AD  ‘Ealdorman Herebryht was killed by heathen men, and many of the people of Romney Marsh with him’. In 851 AD they first ‘wintered’ here.

The Danes

Danes predominated in the raids on southern England.  The Burghal Hidage is a document dating from the late 9th century. It lists 33 sites in Wessex and English Mercia fortified by Alfred as part of his campaign against the Danes. The list goes round the defensive ’burghs’ in order in his kingdom. It begins with Eorpeburnam.   Though not yet definitely identified, this settlement is in Sussex, east of Hastings and is probably Rye. It had a defensive line of 445.5 yards and a later survey of Rye’s town walls and ditch, recorded in 1847, gives the distance as 445.5 yards!

King Alfred (871-899) halted the decline of the English, by organising armed opposition on land. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 892  he had ships built to attack at sea:

 the great force…went … from Boulogne, and there got ships, so that in one trip they set out with horses and all, then came up the mouth of the Lympne (Rother) with 250 ships. This rivermouth is in east Kent at the east end of the great wood we call Andred, the Weald… The river we have spoken of runs out of these woods, and on the river they took their ships four miles from the outward mouth, and there broke into a fort; in the stronghold there were only a few peasants staying, and it was half-built. 

The Chronicle  goes on to say they built a fort at Appledore and continued to harry the land for many years–indeed throughout the 10th Century.

In 978 AD King Ethelred came to the throne  but he was weak and had to pay larger and larger sums of tribute money to King Harold of Denmark,  a strong king who had united the Viking lands, and then to his successor King Swein. From 992 AD the Vikings invaded almost every year until 1014, gaining more and more land and influence. Swein even took over the throne of England for a few weeks before his death in 1014. Ethelred came back from exile in 1014. After his death in 1016 his son Edmund took the throne but died only seven months after his succession. Swein’s son Cnut (Canute) succeeded him.

King Cnut married Ethelred’s Norman widow, Queen Emma, and fulfilled her late husband’s vow to give ‘our’ area–known as the Manor of Rameslie – to the Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy. This had great implications, as this Abbey was the favourite Abbey of the Duke of Normandy. From 1012 the kings had had the use of ships paid for from taxation. These were augmented by ships from what became known as the Cinque Ports–Sandwich, Dover, Romney, Hythe and Hastings — when required. For a while our coastline had a peaceful time as one of the main routes into England from the continent.

A series of Danish kings followed, to be succeeded by King Edward the Confessor in 1045. However, Godwine, Earl of Kent and Wessex, really ran the country. After a rift with Godwine, in which Godwine refused to attack his own people in the Dover area, Edward banished Godwine’s family (1051-2) and brought Normans into high government positions, thus antagonising the English.

Godwine fought back and. returning from exile, he tried to regain his position along ‘our- coast. He came from Bruges

with his ships …. and put out to sea one day before midsummer eve, so that he came to Dungeness, which is south of Romney. Then it came to the knowledge of the earls at Sandwich and they went out after the ships and called out the land forces. During this Earl Godwin was warned and turned to Pevensey;  the weather became so violent that the earls could not tell what had become of Earl Godwine. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

On hearing that the king’s ships had dispersed, Godwine returned to his friends in the Cinque Ports area of the south-eastern ports and joined up with their ships and seamen. At the same time, Godwine’s son, Earl Harold, was on his way from Ireland with nine ships. He met up with his father off the Isle of Wight and

took what had been left behind, and went from there to Pevensey. They took as many ships as were serviceable, so continued to Dungeness, took all the ships that were in Romney, Hythe and Folkestone, then turned east to Dover, went up and seized as many ships and hostages as they would, and fared to Sandwich. There they did the same. (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)

Godwine and Harold regained power with the support of the people in this area and they drove out many of Edward’s Norman advisors. In return for Norman support, Edward had apparently promised England’s crown to his great-nephew William of Normandy in 1051, but after Godwine’s death (1053) Edward relied heavily on Harold, who was also his brother in law. The dying monarch allegedly named Harold his successor.   The Rye area was still owned by the Abbey of Fécamp. . . .

Dec 20 2009

Norman and Medieval Times: 1066-1485


by Jo Kirkham

1066

King Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066 and Harold was crowned King on 6 January 1066. William the Conqueror landed at Pevensey with 400 large and 1000 small ships on 28th September 1066. This area of coast between Rye and Hastings and inland to include Brede (the Manor of Rameslie), was a good place to land as it already belonged to the Norman Abbey of Fécamp and was relatively safe for ‘William’.

Harold was in York fighting an invasion by Harold Hardrada of Norway and his own exiled younger brother Tostig. The ships from Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, Sandwich and several smaller ports, were accompanying his army and were in the North Sea.  After Harold’s successful battle against the Danes at Stamford Bridge outside York, on 24 September, he force-marched his troops south on hearing of William’s landing on 1 October. He sent his ships south also, to block off William’s escape route to Normandy. It was a monk of Fecamp who carried William’s challenge to Harold;  the reply  resulted in the Battle of Hastings at Senlac Ridge on October 14 1066.

After his defeat of Harold, William then went through  what he considered the Norman-owned lands of Rameslie to Romney where he proceeded to slaughter the populace. One of his ships had accidentally landed too far East and the Romney people had dealt harshly with the crew. This served as a great warning to Dover, for the custodians of the Castle there handed it to him without a fight. William then went on to Canterbury and London where he was crowned King of England on Christmas Day 1066.

Cinque Port Power

For the next 200 years, until 1247, our coast, including Rye, became one of the most important routeways to the ‘French’ parts of the kingdom–Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony. Winchelsea and Rye were the northern arm of the wine trade from Gascony. The Channel was an Anglo- Norman stretch of water.

The Cinque Ports rose to great power at this time. They were the key to any sea travel by the monarch– both to trade or to go to war, and ships from Rye and Winchelsea went to fight against Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain and the Low Countries. They also went ‘on Crusade’ against the Infidel– in Spain and in the Holy Land.

One third of the monarch’s ships came from the Cinque Ports. They were the professional nucleus of his navy.

The Violent Century

The 13th century was known as the ‘Violent Century’. It became impossible to keep these superb seamen of the Cinque Ports in check;  violence, quarrels, piracy and wrecking on the high seas have all been laid at their door! They occupied their ‘off duty’ time by preying on much traffic in the Channel and dealing in a lucrative ‘ransom’ business.

The loss of Normandy in 1204 made the problem worse, because the former allies were now enemies!  The friendly ‘lake’ with the same monarch all round its shores now had opponents on each side.  The Channel became a moat of defence, which the  Cinque Ports defended. Many privileges were given to the Cinque Ports towns, including Rye, at this time, in return for their support.

1213
Rye ships were in the fleet which destroyed Dieppe and French ships in the Seine.
Later in the same year they helped to defeat the French at the Battle of Damme.  Some 200 French ships were captured.

1216
The Cinque Ports Fleet (including Rye ships) relieved the siege of Dover Castle and defeated the French. The Fleets met in the Channel at the Battle of Sandwich. This removed the threat of a French invasion for several years.

1217-35
Cinque Ports piracy was rife, and  Rye’s ships took a very full part.

1235
Portsmen seized and plundered French ships when not at war– and threw the crews overboard!

1242
Henry III failed to defeat France. He ordered Portsmen to attack the French coast which they did very successfully until the French ports, unusually, united to retaliate.

1243
Anglo-French truce.

1247
Rye, which had been owned by the French/Norman Abbey of Fécamp, was taken back into English ownership by Henry III, for, as the French and English were at war, it was inconvenient, to say the least, to have part of England owned by the enemy. (Fécamp Abbey was given lands further away from the coast in compensation.)

1249
King, Henry III, as part of the defence against these raids, gave permission for the building of a castle in Rye.This very building, Ypres Tower,   is now one of the sites of the Rye Castle Museum! 

1258-65
The ‘Barons War’ involved many land and sea attacks and the Portsmen supported Simon de Montfort (Henry III’s brother-in-law) who had rebelled. Twenty-eight Portsmen,  representatives from the towns,  served in his Parliament – the very first one.

1260
During Henry III’s reign the  first known general Charter of the Cinque Ports was issued.

1264
The Portsmen’s ships were worn out in the conflict and Simon de Montfort showed his approval of the Ports actions by levying a tax of 1/10th on the Church to pay for new ships to continue patrolling the Channel for him

1278
In this year the first known detailed joint Charter was  issued by the King to the seven Head Ports.

1282
Portsmen joined the King on his Welsh expedition and captured Anglesey.

1290
Portsmen joined the King on his Scottish expedition. Both these expeditions were difficult, as they were also keeping the Channel patrols, as well as fishing, and going on trading voyages and defending the Ports.

1293
Portsmen defied the King in order to try and settle the problems in the Channel. The Irish, Dutch, and Gascon ships joined the Portsmen against the Normans, Genoese and Flemish in the Battle of Mahe, which the Portsmen won decisively.

1294
The next 150 years saw war with France and the King appointed a Captain of the Ports, so that he could ensure control of them.

1295
Gervaise Alard of Winchelsea was  appointed  Captain and Admiral of the Cinque Ports Fleet.

1297
The King led a campaign against the French at Swyn and, within his Fleet, the Portsrnen attacked the Yarmouth men, destroying 20 of their ships and killing many of their crews. The rival groups were kept apart after this!

1299
Portsmen attacked Scotland with King Edward I and this war went on to the next century.

The animosity continued into the next century.

1308
The Ports’ ships conveyed King Edward II and his Court to France for his marriage to French Princess Isabella in Boulogne.

1310
There was an inquiry into the Ports’ piracy against Flanders.

1323
Scottish campaigns ended and France allied with Scotland. The balance of power for the Portsmen changed.

1325
The Queen and her Court were carried to France by Portsmen. This actually led to civil war and the murder of King Edward II in 1327.

1329
 Rye received the first of a series of murage grants for the building of walls and a ditch  with three large gates of which the Landgate is the only one left.

The Hundred Years War 1337-1453

As part of The Hundred Years War (1337-1453), many mutual raids involving burning and pillaging took place; the danger of invasion was ever present and the Ports bore brunt of attack. The Portsmen could be relied upon to fight to the death and to massacre the crews of the French ‘quicker than it takes to eat a biscuit’. However, they could not be relied upon to make careful discrimination between friend or foe!

1337-39
French Fleets improved dramatically and now the small ships of the Ports had to be joined by large ships from elsewhere to fight them. The  Ports  themselves were attacked by the French:  Hastings, Rye, Folkestone, Winchelsea, Dover, Romney and Hythe.

1340
The Portsmen assembled a small fleet of 21 small ships to retaliate, with 9 from the Thames. They beat off French ships attacking Rye and Hastings and chased them to Boulogne causing great damage.  Seventy more English ships, with King Edward III, then arrived and the main French Fleet was defeated in the Battle of Sluys.

This action began a change in sea warfare tactics, from small raids to large sea battles. The small Ports’ ships with crews of 20/21 men and limited days of Sea Service, became only a part of larger forces in future.

1346
Rye ships ferried over men, horses and supplies for the Battle of Crecy.

1347
The siege of Calais had 700 ships fighting, but only a quarter were Portsmen. The vital role of  t
he Ports’ ships then became surprise raids, repelling and chasing pirates and raiding parties,

1348
The Black Death: ‘‘That time fell great dethe of men in all the worlde wyde’.   It is estimated that the epidemic killed one third of the European population, with devastating consequences.  Whole villages on Romney Marsh disappeared, for example.

1350
Edward III and the Black Prince fought the Spanish in Rye Bay with 50 ‘good ships and pinnaces’ against 40 much larger ones. Fourteen  Spanish ships were sunk and the rest fled. The Queen watched from Udimore.

1350-1356 Seven French raids against Winchelsea.

There were many tit for tat raids across the Channel, for example:

1377
Rye was destroyed by the French five days after Richard II came to the throne.  They sacked and burnt until only the four stone buildings of the Church, the Monastery, the Rye Castle and the Friars of the Sack were left standing within the town. The Church bells were stolen and citizens killed.

1378
Rye and Winchelsea retaliated and burned French towns. They found the stolen church bells. One of them was not returned to the Church, but erected at the end of Watchbell Street, to be rung in warning if the town was attacked.

1385
Bodiam Castle was built on the Rother as part of the coastal defences.

1394
Rye men were  involved in transporting King Richard II and his men to Ireland.

1396
Rye men were involved in transporting the King and his men to Calais.

1405
Rye ships and men went to Wales with Henry IV to help put down the rebellion of Owain Glyndower.

1413
Henry V on his accession revived the Hundred Years War. Rye ships carried  men, horses, supplies etc. to the English armies fighting on the Continent. 

1415
Rye ships ferried troops and supplies to Agincourt.

1416
Portsmen, including Rye’s, were called out by Henry V to defend Calais. He had made piracy high treason.

1422
Portsmen  transported Henry V’s body back to England from France.

1449
Tenterden became a Corporate Limb of Rye in the Cinque Ports after years of association.

1453
The end of the Hundred Years War.  England lost all its possessions in France, except Calais.

The Wars of the Roses

1453-1558
Rye’s ships continued to provide vital supplies to Calais.

1459
The ‘Wars of the Roses’ began.
Henry VI’s wife, Margaret of Anjou, gained the support of France (and Scotland) for the Red Rose side, and the possibility of invasion was present  until Edward IV secured truces with both countries in 1463.

Edward’s sister Margaret married Charles of Burgundy, who was based in the Low Countries and much trade was secured – especially for cloth and wool. Large quantities went out through Rye. France looked enviously at this trade and there was an uneasy peace along the Channel coast.

1470
The French again supported Margaret when she and Warwick (The Kingmaker, who had changed his allegiance to HenryVI) invaded and took back the throne . The ‘Readeption’ of Henry VI only lasted a few months, as Burgundy came out on the side of Edward IV of York, and he was back on the throne in 1471.

1475
Edward IV assembled a huge army to invade France, estimated to be 30,000 to join the Duke of Burgundy, 10,000 to go to Normany and 6,000 to Gascony, The Calais contingent actually got to France; they were transported across our coast. The King eventuallynegotiated a Treaty and got a huge pension from the King of France –  for not fighting!
Trade then flourished across our coast.

Dec 20 2009

Rye Buildings and Defences


 Introduction

Almost every building in Rye has a facinating history! Many have parts from two or three different centuries–a 14th century cellar under a 19th century rebuild, a Tudor house behind a Georgian facade…. A shop or school may now be a house, a warehouse a restaurant or part of the Museum. As population pressure has increased or eased houses have been divided, joined together again but differently, added to….

But it isn’t just the buildings which are of interest. Many of the people who lived in them are fascinating to learn about too–their daily lives, the work they did, their role in Rye’s story and England’s too. We even know quite a bit about the personalities (and idiosyncrasies) of our Rye forebears.

So this section will keep on growing along with others on Rye Streets as well as Trades and Industries and Notable People and many others.  To see a particular article use the list at the top. To view  all the articles in this sectioh so far, simply keep scrolling down.

Dec 19 2009

Tudor and Stuart Times:1485-1714


by Jo Kirkham

Rye in Tudor Times

(I am indebted to Dr Graham Mayhew, as much of this information is from his study of the Rye Records. J. K.)

In Tudor Times, the traditional Cinque Ports Service of troop carrying was not as important as it had been previously, but it still went on, as did  empressment for soldiers. But the greatest wartime expenses in the Town Records until the 1580’s had to do with  maintaining the town walls and town ditch, building barriers and barricades and booms in the harbour and  placing and maintaining  guns.

Much of the means was found by a tax levied on French prisoners taken by privateers operating out of the town, and on the value of goods seized For example,  in 1549/50. ten captains captured 226 prisoners and in 1557/8  thirt-two captains took 465 prisoners.

The Camber was the main refuge for shipping for the whole of the eastern English Channel . It is said that up to 300 or even 400 ships could anchor in safety here; . The sea could still surround the town to a depth of 20-30 feet at some tides, except for the narrow stretch of land from the Landgate  and the inhabitants were very worried about the danger of enemy ships getting near the town. More guns were bought  ten or eleven were ready to defend the town. Some of these were stored in the Castle.

Some illustrative details of this period

1488
Henry VII’s largest warship, ‘The Regent’, built at Reading Street near Tenterden, was fitted out in Rye and went into service in 1491. Many other ships were built along the Rother and at Rye itself. Ships for the Crown were built from at least 1410 to the 1550’s.

1489-90
Rye’s town ditch was scoured, walls were repaired, fences covered with thorns were built, cliffs were steepened and a ‘sege hous’ was built to defend the Strand. At this period when large guns were rare, Rye had a least three.

1491
Henry VII and his army were taken by Portsmen to fight in France.

1491-93
A third of Rye’s entire town expenditure was on war preparations during this time.

1495
Rye was regarded as a potential landing point for Perkin Warbeck as he had some supporters in the town.
Five men were found guilty of treason and hung, drawn and quartered.

1512-14
Camber Castle was begun by Henry VIII to defend against the French and repairs were  made to the town defences

1513
Rye (with Dover) was the chief embarkation port for Henry VIII and his army when they went to France to fight in the Battle of the Spurs.   Rye was  ordered by the Lord Warden to send six soldiers as well as Ship Service. The Regent was lost

In May, a Cinque Ports Court met and

 ‘Every man that goeth in the navy of the Portes shal have a cote of white cotyn with a red cross and the armes of the Portes undernethe, that is to say the halfe lyon and the half shippe’.

1520
‘The Field of the Cloth of Gold’. Rye ships were among those which escorted Henry VIII across the Channel to meet Francis I of France.
Sir Edward Guldeford was Lord Warden and Marshal of Calais and had to organise the supplies for the month long event.

1522-3
War with France again and Rye was ordered to send twelve soldiers. Rye again had to make expensive preparations and repairs to the town fortifications. There were great guns on the Strand, on the Landgate and on a platform on the cliff. There is the first reference to a paid gunner in the town.

1531
Cinque Ports Ship Service was demanded again.

1539-1542
Henry VIII completed his Castles built to guard the coast nearest to the Continent and closest to London:   Sandown, Deal, Walmer, Sandgate and Camber, with alterations to Dover. At Camber alone 1210  men were employed in these works. 

1540
A Captain and  twenty-five  soldiers were garrisoned at Camber by the end of 1540. Its men and armour were similar to those in Dover and Portsmouth, an indication of its importance.

1544
Rye was again the main embarkation point for Henry VIII’s troops to France for the Boulogne expedition and the town had to send  twenty soldiers as well as provide Ship Service of three ships.

The invasion scares and this expedition again cost the town a great deal of money, as it made expensive preparations with new town defences. These were much more ambitious than those of 1491, 1513 and 1522. Royal Commissioners took charge and more than forty-seven men (including twelve masons) were employed making the walls fit to hold ordnance, developing the Gungarden and the new ”fortresse” at the Strand which involved demolishing old shops. The work was urgent as they worked all night and on Sundays too, and used French prisoners-of-war.

1545
French galleys (’Galleys and Franche shippes’) appeared off Rye and the people joined the soldiers in defending it. Extra bows, arrows, pikes, arquebuses and shot were bought in the fo11owing years and eventually the north aisle of the Church was taken over as an arms store. The town even owned suits of armour.

1556
Mary I demanded ‘Ship Service  and two Rye fishing boats were employed to watch the French coast.

1557-8
Mary I’s war with France needed great defence preparations as well as  men and ships.  Eighty of its mariners were ‘pressed’ for the Queen’s ships and two ships were demanded  for Cinque Ports service (called here  ‘dolling’).

The Mayor spent time in prison in London because he refused to levy more taxes on Rye people for the war at this time.

A new jetty was built at Budgwell and covered with thorns.  Landgate was narrowed and defended. Eighteen masons were employed on the wall and fifty-one men were employed digging out the ditch.  New portcullises were installed in Landgate and Strandgate. Men had the job of making hail shot.

1558
Mary I lost Calais. Many Rye ships and men became redundant and had to find other trade.

1562
Rye was once more the main departure point for troops, this time for those of Elizabeth I’s Le Havre expedition to France when she intervened in the religious wars there.

The expense was made worse when Elizabeth refused to make a general licence for privateers at this time, from which Rye had raised much of its money. However the town had a large arsenal of weaponry.

Rye  had an ‘invasion’ of 1500 religious refugees at this time.

1577-1580
At least one sailor from Rye, accompanying Sir Francis Drake, completed the second ever circumnavigation of the world.

1585-88
Camber Castle had further modifications to take the larger guns needed to defend against the Spanish threat.

1588
Rye ships and men were part of Queen Elizabeth I’s fleet which fought the Spanish Armada. One plan of the Duc de Guise was to land troops from France and Flanders in the Camber.

Among the fleet of five ships and a pinnace was the ‘Towne Shippe of Warre of Rye’, the William, 60 tons. Under the control of Lord Henry Seymour, this Rye fleet took a full part in the fire-ships attack and subsequent dispersal of the Spanish Fleet off Calais.

Once again the town fortifications were improved, at great expense. These included cutting 240 tons of timber to restore the platform at the Gungarden, maintaining the great guns there and at Landgate and Strandgate; and rebuilding the bridge over the ditch at the Postern Gate. At every ‘scare’ great attention was given to water supply of the townsfolk.

A permanent gunner was now employed by the town and there was a ‘gun house’. Rye was ordered to buy muskets by the Cinque Ports, to increase the number of light weapons available.

1589
Rye was chosen as the rendezvous for ships from London, Dover and Portsmouth for transporting the English troops sent to Dieppe to help Henry IV of France. The town was ordered to provide three ships, but eventually two served.

1596
The Cinque Ports allocation to the Queen’s fleet for the Cadiz expedition was again five ships and a pinnace; the Hercules of Rye, 100 tons, was one of them. Rye was the embarkation point for all of Sussex’s troops.

1597

A list of weapons in private hands is written in the Muster Rolls of 1597/8. It shows that bows and arrows have practically disappeared – but, in order of amount, the townsfolk had calivers, muskets, pikes, bills, swords, halberds and daggers. They possessed armour: skulls, Spanish murrions, corselets, caps, cuirasses, caps and headpieces.

During the last decade of the century, Elizabeth was trying to get the Cinque Ports included in the shire defences.

Stuart Times

1603
The town walls were intact, except on the east side where the river and cliffs replaced the lost part of the wall. The battery at the Gungarden and the bulwark on the Strand still had some guns and the Watchbell was kept in good repair. Camber Castle was still garrisoned.

1625
War was declared on Spain and Charles I attacked Cadiz.

1626
War was declared on France and Rye was put on alert again. It still paid one gunner. Rye ships captured at least one French ship and took prisoners.

1643
Camber Castle was abandoned. The Mayor and Jurats of Rye were given £200 from the monies made from the sale of lead from the Castle, to use on the defences of the town.

1648
The Royal party had a naval force under Prince Rupert and these ships patrolled the Channel from 1648, before the death of King Charles I. One Rye ship was captured by them. This opposition ended in 1552.

1650-59:  The Commonwealth period

The Civil War did not affect Rye directly as the Corporation had been controlled by the Puritans since 1631, but they had to billet Parliamentarian troops on many occasions.

During the Commonwealth there was very strict control over travellers going to and from the town, by land and sea, and reasons for movement had to be sent to the Clerk to the Council in Whitehall.

1652 – 54: The First Dutch WarThere were a great many skirmishes between the Dutch fleet and the Commonwealth Navy, under the command of Admiral Blake, including one off Dungeness. Ships and men from Rye were in the navy. Troops were stationed in the town.

 1655
The Town Council petitioned The Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, for Rye’s ships to be allowed a convoy system.

1657
Two Companies of foot soldiers from Colonel Robert Gibbon’s Regiment were quartered in Rye.

1658
These soldiers were eventually sent to Dunkirk and the Mayor was instructed to enlist townsmen and set watches for the defence of the town. He did have 120 men on patrol, but soldiers were still billeted on the town.

1659
A party of the County Horse and 100 foot from Kent were sent to the town under Captain Heath.

1660: The Restoration of the Monarchy
Charles II reclaimed the throne.

1662
The Mayor of Rye  applied to the Tower of London for some gunpowder saying that the town had more great guns mounted than any other of the ports with the exception of Dover, but they were having difficulty in finding money for the ammunition. They needed it for

ornament upon festival and other public occasions; for the stopping of vessels, which might otherwise steal out of the harbour without paying their dues; for keeping the peace when foreign ships of war, with their prizes, were in the harbour together; and for the safety of the town.

1664 – 74
In  the Second Dutch War (1664-67) and the Third Dutch War 1672-74). Rye was put on alert, but no fighting took place here after the Four Days Battle in the eastern Channel even though the fleets sailed past on many occasions and Dutch privateers did prowl the coast. 

The French were supposed to be our ally in this Third War[  when they didn’t give the support expected, they once more became our ‘rival’. The ‘peace’ virtually prohibited imports from Northern France and so inaugurated a long period of smuggling across the channel for brandy, silks and linens.

1688
The two fleets involved in the Glorious Revolution sailed down the Channel. That of William Prince of Orange, sailing on behalf of his wife, Mary, passed Rye on Nov. 3.  That representing James II followed it on Nov. 4th.

1689
 Thirty-two men and a boy were sent to Chatham on the King’s service to man the King’s ships.

1690
The war with the French was renewed and a  navy weakened because most ships were away on other duties was defending the south coast against the threat of invasion by a very strong French navy.

The great town gates and the postern gate were repaired and turnpikes were made to stop horses going through them without permission. The three  guns at the Castle point were brought into the fort and the gun lying at the Gungarden Rocks was brought up the hill. Sufficient tamkins and aprons were provided to preserve the guns; planks were put under the wheels and the carriage of the great gun in the fort was mended.

The warship Anne was beached off Pett Level after fighting the French in the Battle of Beachy Head on 30 June .  It is still there in the sand. The crew were paid off in Rye. The great ‘Scare’ had mobilised the town for a possible invasion.

1691-2
Nominally the English had the control of the Channel but French privateers attacked ships and threatened places on the south coast. Rye was on the alert. This situation went on throughout Queen Anne’s reign, that is, until 1713.

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