Rye Castle Museum

 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.

When was it built?

Nobody is quite sure when Ypres Tower was built. It may have been part of a royal castle built sometime between 1230 and 1250, during the reign of Henry III. Normandy had been lost and Henry  feared more attacks by the French. Certainly, in 1249,  he ordered the Constable of the Cinque Ports,  Peter Savoy, to build a castle at Rye but there is now some doubt whether it was ever erected.

Ypres Tower (Etching by Hooper)

 It is now thought more likely that it was built at the same time as the town wall and gates, during the reign of Edward III or Richard II in the late 14th century. Its architecture is of that period, and some details of its construction are similar to those of the Landgate; in fact, the Tower was incorporated into the town wall.   

 Whichever is the case, it was called Baddings Tower, the name of the ward in which it was situated, and the sturdy square building with three-quarter-round towers at the angles has remained essentially the same since its construction. The stone walls, some forty feet high, were originally topped by a parapet, and the remains of the corbels may still be seen on the east and west sides.

A 1633 drawing by Anthony Van Dyck clearly shows the parapet. (Van Dyck did three other drawings of Rye and the Ypres Tower, presumably while awaiting passage back to the Low Countries.)

Changing uses

The enhanced defences of the town were found wanting when the French attacked and burnt the town in 1377, stealing the church bells and killing inhabitants.  The Court Hall was one casualty of this raid, and while a new one was being built, the Tower was used for Corporation business and the various courts, In 1421, all offenders were ordered to attend here on pain of a fine of 12 pence which suggests that  part of it was also used as a prison.  However, in 1430 the Tower  was leased to one John de Ypres (hence the name), for use as a private residence, with the proviso that ‘the Maior Jurats and Commonality’ could enter it at a time of hostility or war for the purpose of town defence. 

In 1484 or 1494 the Corporation rented the Tower for use as a prison, and in 1518 bought the freehold–for £26; shortly afterwards a new roof and new floors were added.   For the next three hundred years the Sergeant-at-Mace acted as Gaoler of the Ypres Tower, under the supervision of the Mayor and Jurats. (His salary in 1841 was £8.6s.4d rising to £12.12a.0d in 1808 plus fees.) He was assisted by four unpaid Petty Constables who were to summon, apprehend, search for and arrest as directed and to enforce directives such as the many times repeated one prohibiting any person whatsoever to ‘throw or fling at cocks in this town’. The Constables at first received ‘rewards’, such as a pot of beer or ’some small matter of refreshment’, but became more productive when they received 1s. for each vagrant taken inside the town and 2s. for each taken outside.

Ypres Tower c.1890

From the 1740s capital offences were tried at Horsham or elsewhere which meant that Tower inmates were those who had committed felonies or, more often, misdemeanors;  petty larceny accounted for  two-thirds of all indictable offences, the others consistently mainly of ‘offenses against the person’ with a sprinkling of fraud.   Fair time usually meant cells briefly filled with victims of drink. 

 Progress?

A full time ‘Gaol Keeper’ was appointed in 1796 (salary £3 rising to £5 in 1806), and three years later given an assistant by which time there was accommodation for twelve prisoners–stretching to twenty when necessary. However, the Tower was by now in a bad state of repair; the Corporation even considered demolishing it.  Instead, a red brick exercise yard was built  on the north side and, it is thought, the stocks and whipping post removed.

Ypres Castle (Watercolour by W H Borrow)

Equipment at this time consisted of 4 rugs (1 old), 5 blankets (2 thin), 1 round deal table, 2 wood bottomed chairs, 2 coal boxes, 2 fire water cans, 13 padlocks, 2 pair of leg irons, 8 pair handcuffs, 1 Constable’s staff and 1 horn lantern.  While at the end of the 18th century the Gaoler was expected to provide, out of his allowance, bread, beer and soup for his prisoners, by the 1820’s this had been reduced to bread and water though the sick qualified for milk, gruel and wine. Prisoners slept on a truss of straw, though blankets were issued in the early 1800’s and sometimes washed.

More elaborate changes followed the 1830’s legislation to improve prison conditions: a new exercise yard (the present Medieval Garden), four additional cells, and a tower for housing women prisoners (now the focus of the Women’s Tower Project).

As a result of  these ‘improvements’, the total number of prisoners to be housed was reduced to nine.  By this time the Gaoler received ‘a house and firing’  in addition to his salary and his wife  was Matron of the Gaol at 4s. a week. The purchase of two ‘Standard Hard Labour Machines’ in 1855 and 1865 was thought to represent futher ‘progress’, along with the issuing of Bibles (1858) and sheets (1861).  Other expenditure for the gaol included  candles for lighting; faggots, sparingly purchased, for heating; gas, for cooking only (1864), staves, handcuffs, leg and body irons and rattles.

Lock-up, Soup Kitchen and Mortuary

Ypres Tower c.1920

As a result of the Prison Act of 1865, the gaol was downgraded to the status of a lock-up and remained as such until 1891 when the first police station was built on the southern side of Church Square  (Now No. 18, a private residence).

 Before this, however, the Corporation in 1870 resolved that a Soup Kitchen be built at the front of the Tower for the distribution of soup and bread to the poor during severe winter weather.  The original red brick exercise yard was provided with a roof and a chimney for this purpose. Local citizens considered this an eyesore and formed a society which provided funds for its demolition and removal to the corner of Rope Walk and Cinque Ports Street in 1895.

 Meanwhile, the lower floor of the Tower was being used as a Mortuary–and continued thus until 1959 despite objections.  Ex-Mayor John Neve Masters, for example, wrote this to the town clerk in 1894:  ‘Whose business is it to keep the Mortuary clean?  I found this morning that it had never been cleaned out since used, the table is dirty and stinking. Fish are lying about.’ 

Nonetheless, in 1901, there was a request to buy it as a private residence–fortunately rejected.  In 1924, though used only as a mortuary and to house the 18th century fire engine, it was scheduled as an ancient monument.

A Home for Rye Museum

Battery House

As early as 1889,  Rye Literary Society had proposed the use of the Tower as a museum for the town but it was not until1928 that a museum for the town was established–in the Battery House next door. This had been purchased by the Corporation from the War Office and was rented for use as a Museum for £26 a year. Its Curator was Leopold Vidler, who wrote A New History of |Rye 1934.  With the coming of war, valuables were stored elsewhere and the museum closed.  This was just as well as on 22 September 1942 Battery House and the adjoining properties were badly damaged in an air raid, and the Ypres Tower lost the pyramidal roof it had acquired at an unknown date.

At the end of the war, all the cases and exhibits which had been saved were stored in a garage and remained there until Coronation Year, 1953, when celebrations for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II ignited interest in re-establishing the Rye Museum. A Museum Committee set to work and the Rye Museum opened its doors on Easter, 1954 with exhibits on the ground and first floors–and the mortunary still in the basement.

Entrance to Ypres Castle

 The Tower  Today

Today, visitors see the Tower essentially as it originally was, with the main entrance  on the side facing the town.  One difference is that the door originally had a portcullis.   The main door leads into the ground floor, with a basement beneath,a first floor above and a turret at each corner.

Ypres Tower today (drawing by Brian Hargreaves)

 The north-east turret houses the spiral staircase which serves all three floors; the steps are deliberately uneven, to put any intruder at a disadvantage. The other three hollow turrets which originally  formed guardrooms at ground and first floor levels became  cells for prisoners after the tower became a prison.  The ground and first floors each had a fireplace. These are still in place, although the chimneys are now blocked. 

 The windows were originally designed as arrow-slits, and between them they were intended to give  good all-round defence as archers in the turrets could fire on attackers trying to climb the walls.  Now it is all-round views that are wanted by visitors to the Tower and these can be obtained by venturing out onto the first floor balcony

For more information on visiting the Tower today and some views from it, click here.

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 The Landgate Tower

 By the early 14th century, Rye was one of the most important ports on the South Coast, and with the start of the Hundred Years War with France, was very vulnerable to attack by raiding French warships.

In 1339 the French attacked the town, and burnt 52 houses and a mill. It was at about this time that the mayor and corporation made a start on the town walls and gates, aided by money (”murage”) granted by the King.

The Landgate Tower

The Landgate dates from about 1340, during the reign of Edward III.  Built of stone rubble, the two towers have moulded plinths.  The parapets have disappeared, but the string course and machiolations with moulded corbels remain on the north front which had a pointed arch with grooves for the portcullis. (The portcullis  was removed in 1735. )

 The south front has an elliptical arch, once flanked by two buttresses but one of these is no longer there. The floors and roofs of the gate and towers have also disappeared.  

 In 1377, however, the French attacked again and sacked Rye, burning practically every building in the town. Only a few stone buildings survived.  

The Walls

In 1381, the town was granted a charter to build a stone wall, although this was not completed until several years later. A third story was added to the Landgate at this time too.  The new wall enclosed the town except where steep cliffs provided adequate defence to the east and south. There were four gates: the Landgate, Strandgate, Baddings Gate and the Postern Gate.  

Strandgate 1784

Of the wall between the Landgate and the Strandgate considerable portions survive between Conduit Hill and the former site of the Landgate.  The most visible section is at the back of the Cinque Ports Street carpark.  

 The town was again attacked by the French in 1449, and despite the walls, some buildings were burnt. This was the last time the town’s medieval fortifications were tested, though  brick arches were made for gun holes in the Landgate at the time of the Armada. 

The Strandgate

However the 16th Century saw Rye reach the zenith of her power. Every kind of cargo was handled at Strand Quay and records show that 200 ships at a time could anchor near the Strandgate. Located  at the foot of Mermaid Street, it must have been an impressive gateway to the town, as the drawing of its arcading suggests. 

Rye’s fortifications were modernised with the addition of cannon during the 15th and 16th centuries, but subsequently fell into disrepair. The Strandgate survived until c1819 when it was destroyed, though a few remains of it have been incorporated into the Old Borough Arms hotel’

 Thus today’s visitors searching for Rye’s former defenses are able to see only the Landgate, a few fragments of the town wall, and the Ypres Tower, now one of the two buildings of Rye Museum.

With acknowledgement to  L A Vidler,  G S Bagley and Tony and Cynthia Reavell

Rye's Town Hall

The Town Hall is on the site of at least two earlier Court Halls. The first was burnt to the ground during the French attack of 1377.   Its replacement and the Market Place next to it were in such a bad state of repair in 1742 that the Corporation decided to pull them down.     The timber, tiles, lead and other materials were sold to the Mayor for £38.16s.

Architect Andrew Jelf designed the handsome Georgian Town Hall we see today.   His original scale model survives to this day in the attic room of the building  along with other relics of the past.  One of these is the Rye Pillory, last used in 1813 to punish a publican who had helped a French prisoner of war to escape.  It was placed on the beach so that during the punishment his face could be turned to the coast of France.

Pillory and gibbet cage with skull of John Breads

 The cupola of the town hall held the Jurat’s Bell which was used during Quarter Sessions; it was replaced in 1981 to mark the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana.  In 1974 when Rye ceased to be a Borough Council and became Rye Town Council,  the Town Hall ceased to be used as a Court Room, but Mayoring Day is still celebrated annually, when the new mayor throws hot pennies from the Council Chamber windows to the children below.   

With acknowledgement to  L A Vidler,  G S Bagley and Tony and Cynthia Reavell.

With particular thanks to Jo Kirkham  (Rye Parish Church), Parish Church Council of St Mary the Virgin, Rye (1289-1989 Welcome to St Mary the Virgin Rye) and Brian Hargreaves for his line drawing of  church from the southeast.

 The Early Years

The hill on which Rye stands has been dominated by the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin for nearly 900 years as many ar artist has shown.    

Watercolour by W H Borrow

The Domesday Book, completed in 1086, implies that there was already a church  in Rye.   La Rie, as it was then called,  was  only a small fishing village, part of the extensive Sussex coast lands called Rameslie held by the Abbot of Fecamp  in Normandy, and the church would have been a Saxon wooden one on or near the site of the present church.  What we  know more certainly is that after the Abbot, William de Ros, came to look at his possessions in  1103, plans were made to build a stone church and a hospital at Rye.   

 By about 1120 the chancel and stone tower had been completed, and over the next 100 years transepts, crossing,  nave and finally two side chapels were added, reflecting the development of building styles: Norman (the chancel) Transitional and Early English (arches of the nave).

Church abuilding

The church was built by local men, under the supervision of master masons and craftsmen from the Abbey.  The basic design has survived, but over the centuries the church has been enlarged, attacked and ravaged by fire,  repaired and altered many times, both inside and out. 

  The church has sometimes been called The Cathedral of East Sussex. The reason it was built on such a grand scale is that Rye was becoming an important member of the Cinque Ports Confederation–towns which were allowed a fair degree of self-government in return for supplying the king with a navy.  The Federation was important even before Henry III regained possession of  Rameslie lands in 1247 by exchanging them for lands in Gloucesteshire and Lincolnshire,  away from the coast.  He wished to prevent this coastal area from being used as a base for invasion as it had been in 1215 when Louis, Dauphin of France, landed at Rye without much resistance.  (One part of the reclaimed land is still known as ‘Rye Foreign’.) 

1377 Disaster

The worst disaster to befall the church occurred in 1377 when the town was looted and set on fire by French invaders and the church was extensively damaged.  The roof fell in and the church bells were stolen and taken off to France.  Resistance by Ryers seems to have been feeble and some of the leading inhabitants who survived the incident were subsequently hanged and quartered as traitors by order of the Mayor and the King’s Bailiff.

However, the next year the men of Rye and Winchelsea retaliated by sailing to Normandy, setting fire to two towns and recovering much of the loot, including the church bells. One of these was hung in Watchbell Street to give warning of any future attack; it was only returned to the church in the early 16th century. 

Change and Decay

During the Reformation in the 16th century the interior of the church was stripped of its rood (cross), images and ornanemts and much of the church property in the form of land was confiscated. In the reign of Queen Mary (1553-58), the roodloft and ornaments were restored but, on the accession of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558 , the churchwardens dutifully removed them again.

From 1562 Rye willingly gave shelter to large numbers of Huguenots fleeing from persecution in France and in 1582 there were over 1500 people of French extraction living in the town, whose total population was about 3500. For a time they had their own ministers and held their own services in the church but, by the end of the century, they attended the ordinary services.  In 1685 a further 50 Huguenot families arrived after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.  Some of the Huguenots’ descendants worship in the church to this day.

On the whole, the inhabitants of Rye seem to have accepted civil and religious changes with equanimity and to have attended whatever form of service was offered in their parish church. However, the long series of religious quarrels and the loss of church revenues did lead to the neglect and decay of the building and in the late 17th centurhy the chancel was said to be ‘very ruinous’.

In 1701 the vicar and churchwardens petitioned the king for financial assistance, saying that the church was so ruinous that people were afraid to attend services.  In the end, enough money was raised to complete the most essential work by the end of 1703.

Some thirty years later major repairs were again undertaken and in the ensuing years the churchwardens were constantly patching the roof and dealing with minor repairs.

The Many Uses of the Church

There were no pews or seats in the church in the early days and the church was used for everyday activities as well as for religious purposes including dramatic performances of Bible stories.  In Tudor times the Resurrection Play was performed a Easter and in 1523 a shilling was paid ‘for a coate made for him that in  playing represented the part of almighty god’ and ‘ three shillings and fourpence for making the stage’.

By the middle of the 16th century when more services were taking place in the nave than in the chancel, the north and south chancels were cut off from the main building.  In 1569 the town’s guns and gunpowder were being kept in the south chancel and in addition, at the time of the Armada (1588),   gun wheels were kept in the churchyard .  In 1637, a complaint was made that the church contained ‘arsenals, prisons and places of execution of punishment’. 

The cistern or Water House in the northeast angle of the churchyard is a major architectural feature of the town; it faces the side of Church Square formerly known as Pump Street. It was built in 1735 and is considered a first class example of Georgian brickwork. It has been likened to ‘an oval tea-caddy with a lid on’.  The ‘tea-caddy’  sits on a domed structure which in turn caps the actual reservoir which is below ground.  The water supply was pumped up Conduit Hill through elm pipes from  what became the town’s Soup Kitchen and later,  public lavatories.

At the time the Water House was built,  Market Street was the Butchery.  The Assembly Book of 1754 reported that calves’ feet had been found in the reservoir,  endangering health, and that anyone thereafter discovered throwing  ‘dirt, dust, soil,  trash, nastiness or anything else’ would be prosecuted.

St Mary's from the southeast

Still later, the south chancel was divided into two floors, and the upper floor became a school for pauper children.  According  to one report in the 1830s children were marshalled there by  an old parishioner twice a day either for the purpose of instruction or amusement we  know not’  but  ‘ the hubbub which prevailed’  led to wonder whether any knowledge was acquired.  The etching  shows the schoolmaster and his pupils in 1851 leaving by a door which is now blocked up.

The reporter goes on to say  that at other times the pauper sick  were taken to the south chapel e ‘ for quietness’.   The remains of the school’s fireplace can still be seen high up on the chancel wall.   There were other uses still in Victorian times:  as a factory where workhouse inmates were employed in spinning, and as a soup  kitchen.

 The  north chancel has also been used for a variety of purposes: as a store for the town’s lumber and builders’ ladders,   a home  for the town fire engine (now in the Rye Museum), and, it  is thought, a hiding place for smuggled goods.   In 1854   it was ruled that burials within and outside of the church should cease; henceforth Rye Cemetery was to be used for burials.  Until that time, people were buried in the north chancel and two of the graves feature in a famour Rye story.     

Pillory and gibbet cage with skull of John Breads

Next to one another lie Allen Grebell–murdered by mistake in 1742 by John Breads, a butcher.   At the time Grebell was the deputy mayor.  Dressed in the mayor’s cloak, he was returning from a function attended on behalf of his brother-in-law, mayor James Lamb, the intended victim.  

Various explanations  have been offered: revenge for being fined by the mayor for giving short weight, mental illness,  the Rye smuggling mafia diverting attention from  their  activities….    Nevertheless, from 1792 to 1862 the murderer and his victim were both  in the north chancel as John Breads’ skeleton, in an iron cage, had been moved there from Gibbets’ Marsh. 

In 1862, when the chancels were re-opened, the iron cage and its contents were removed to the Town Hall.  At about the same time  the pillory and ducking stool,  fire engine,  lumber and  ladders were also removed.

Victorian Restorations

In 1883 an extensive restoration scheme was begun.    The church was once again in a dilapidated state.  The nave had been covered with a flat plaster ceiling, concealing the fact that the clerestory windows had been boarded up. The walls were considered dangerous. 

With Victorian thoroughness, the restorers set to work to put things right.  The nave was re-roofed, an entire new clerestory constructed, the walls strengthened, the west door–from which people are leaving in the 1851 photo above– was  blocked up and a clean sweep made of much of the interior.  A careful comparison of the two pre-restoration photos with what one sees today will reveal a number of external changes

There has been much criticism of the drastic reconstruction. One eminent architect asserted that the church, as an historic building, had suffered more from the misguided zeal of the restorers than it had from the French and the Puritans during previous centuries.   It is considered fortunate that plans to bring the transepts up to Victorian standards were dropped.

 Post World War II Restorations

The next  major restoration programme was started after the Second World War.  Although the only visible damage of h= the war was the loss of the East Window in a bomb blast,  closer inspection revealed that much of the fabric was in a bad state and an extensive restoration programme was begun in 1948 which still continues.  Some of the repairs such as the rebuilding of the  buttresses on the south are obvious.  Others, like the major operation of tying the north transept walls to the tower, work on the walls, restoring the entire roof, strengthening the tower and renewing flooring are less visible though no less important.

Repairs will always be needed to this still impressive church so full of history, but it is hoped that never again will it be ’so ruinous that the people are afraid to attend’.   Today the church plays a major role in the life of the town as a fitting venue not only for services but also for classical music concerts and other  activities which bring the community together.    

Church from Lion St

The Tower

The bells stolen by the French and subsequently recovered are not the ones in the Tower today.  In 1775 the orignal bells were recast and two new ones added.  Together, the eight bells and their clappers weigh nearly five tons.   The church still has an active bell-ringing team. 

 The ‘new’ clock was made in about 1561-62 by the Hugeunot Lewys Billiard who was paid 30 pounds  for his work .It is one of the oldest turret clocks in the country sill functioning.   The exterior clock face and the Quarter Boys which stand above the dial were added in 1761.  

Church Clock and Quarter Boys

Another feature of the tower is the golden weather vane which dates from 1703.  From its beginning, the tower has been used as a lookout and a landmark for sailors, visible from Dungeness to Fairlight,  Today a climb to the Tower is one of Rye’s most popular tourist attractions, offering views over the entire red-roofed town,  the surrounding landscape including Romney Marsh and the rivers, and out to sea. 

Next:  What to look for inside the church

Biographical notes provided by
Rye-born historian and novelist John Burke, father of Jenny Hadfield

Jeake’s House

The Jeake Family

Of  Huguenot origin, the family’s first settler  in Rye appears to have been a late 16th-century merchant, William Jeaque (a possible corruption of Jacques). His son Henry set up a bakery in the High Street and married a girl from Peasmarsh.

Their son, first recorded as Sammewell but later as Samuel, became a freeman of Rye and its Town Clerk. He bought for a guinea the entire collection of statutes belonging to the borough, and from them produced a scholarly volume, The Charters of the Cinque Ports, Two Ancient Towns and their Members. Throughout his life he remained a staunch Presbyterian – or Dissenter – which was no hindrance during the Cromwellian years, but caused him trouble after the Restoration of Charles II, when the Act of Uniformity denied freedom of worship and preaching — ‘holding forth’ — by Nonconformists.

Threatened with prosecution in 1682, Jeake fled to London, where he was joined in hiding by his son and daughter-in-law the following year. The son returned warily to Rye in 1684, but his father did not risk it until James II introduced a more tolerant regime, followed by further relaxation under William and Mary.

This son, Samuel Jeake II, was equally firm in his Presbyterian beliefs, but also had an incongruous interest in astrology. As a hard-headed merchant in wool, hops, money-lending and shrewd investments, he nevertheless turned to the stars for guidance before deciding to become one of the first subscribers to the newly formed Bank of England. Sustaining no injury after hitting his head against a door, he ascribed this to the relative positions of the planets at the time. Contemplating marriage, he worked out the details of the dowry he expected from the young lady’s widowed mother, but was not confident of the girl’s own response until “the Cluster of Planets . . . seem’d to shew a successful time for such addresses.”

As a result, at the age of 29 he married Elizabeth Hartshorne, daughter of the late headmaster of the Grammar School in High Street, when she was 13 years of age. Always prone to depression, ague and other ailments, shortly after the betrothal he was “surprised . . . with excessive Melancholy, which lasted all September and October” during which “there arose great displeasure & difference between me and my intended Mother in Law and Wife.” Not a good omen for wedded bliss ! But by November he had recovered, and for once thanked God rather than a conformation of planets. 

Samuel II followed in his father’s footsteps by being made a freeman of Rye in 1690, but the very next day sent his mother-in-law and daughter out of the town because of the scare of a French invasion. He and his wife remained “since my little Boy was this morning taken sick of a feaver, & very bad, so that he could not be carried without danger of his Life.” When no attack was forthcoming, he ascribed this to heavenly intervention, and sketched the horoscope in his diary.

This diary contains day-by-day accounts of his business dealings and local events, each entry preceded by the astrological symbol for the day. Personal matters such as his marital relations and quarrels were camouflaged in a form of shorthand as tricky as Samuel Pepys’s, but solved and transcribed in the 20th century.

Among the children of Samuel and Elizabeth Jeake was another Samuel, derided locally as ‘a Conjuror’.He was reputed to have built a flying machine which unfortunately failed to fly. Rye’s most revered historian, William Holloway, records in the mid 19th century that he had known men who had seen the remains of the machine in the attic of the Grammar School. 

Quakers’ House

In 1704 the Quakers, flourishing in and around Rye, bought the meetinghouse and laid out a burial ground behind it. In 1753 it was bought by the Baptists, in such a derelict state that it had to be virtually demolished and rebuilt in its present form. The baptistry still exists below the floor of the dining room; but guests eating breakfast need not fear a sudden plunge into the water. Jeake’s House itself later became the Baptist schoolroom. Elizabeth Fry, the Quaker prison reformer, visited during a tour of Sussex, and is believed to have addressed the congregation. In 1909 the Baptists built a new chapel in Cinque Ports Street, and their Mermaid Street buildings were sold off. Jeake’s House became a private residence, while the, meeting-house served for several years as St. Mary’s Men’s Club. 

Elder’s House

Adjoining the meeting-house, this was also known as the Minister’s House. One incumbent, the Rev. Purdy, had the building consecrated so that he could hold services there after a schism with his congregation. In the 20th century it became a private residence, the property of the painter Perugini, and for a time before and after the Second World War was the home of the great-uncle of the present proprietor, Jenny Hadfield, before its present amalgamation with the Jeake’s House complex. 

Families and Visitors

In January 1924 the American poet, novelist and critic Conrad Aiken bought Jeake’s House for £1700 – “So vast, so tall the establishment that we are sure that at the end of a year we shall encounter, here and there, rooms unnoticed before, filled with mice and foul with bats, squealing with rats and roped with webs, littered with bones and stinking of ghosts.” As time went on he changed his mind, referring to it as his “deeply cherished home … lighted by laughter, the kind of light that never goes out.” Certainly the present owner will have no truck with bats, rats or malodorous phantoms.

In 1928 Aiken also bought the Men’s Club and began the task of combining the two which has been further developed today. He was visited by local and American friends, including Dame Laura Knight, E. F. Benson, Thomas Hardy’s widow, T. S. Eliot, and the wayward Malcolm Lowry, with whom he had many protracted drinking sessions.

In more recent  years, Patrick Moore stayed here while lecturing on astrology and astronomy in connection with the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jeake’s House. It is frequently used as a base by visiting members of the Tilling Society, devoted to the works of E. F. Benson, who disguised Rye under the name of Tilling (after the local River Tillingham) in the Mapp and Lucia novels written while he lived in Lamb House, round the corner in West Street.

One of Mermaid Street’s earliest houses

Oak Corner. on the corner of Mermaid Street and Traders Passage, dates back to the 15th Century or even earlier. It was a favourite hang out for smugglers, supposedly having hidy holes and entrances to a tunnel system used for storing and moving on contraband under the very noses of the revenue men who operated from a building just a stones throw away from it.

In more modern times it was used as a guest house and during the 1950’s, when it was owned by the Cooper-Keys , Oak Corner played host to many film stars including Dennis Price.  John Mills stayed there during the making of the film  Dunkirk.

In the depth of each winter it played host to players competing in the President’s Putter, a competition that still takes place annually, weather permitting. The knock-out competition is open to all golfing enthusiasts who attended Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

Now, as a private house, it is enjoying its retirement.

Augustinian Friary (The Monastery)

Friary Chapel by Grimm

In 1364, Benedict and Henry Zely, together with William Taillour, the owners of two acres of land on the East Cliff, where the sea had already destroyed some houses, gave permission to the Prior Provincial and the Friars of St. Augustine, to build an Oratory and Manse for their order.

These two acres can be identified as being the part of East Cliff that was later destroyed by the sea and to which the present Ockman’s Lane used to lead.  The Oratory and Manse were built. This was the founding of the first house of the Friars Heremites of St. Austin in Rye.

The King did not oblige them to pay a rent of 2/10 (14p) because the Lord Warden reported the property as having no current value and in return the Friars were to celebrate the Divine service for the good of the King as well as those of the donators of the land and for their souls, progenitors and heirs. 

The Chapel and Manse of the Austin Friars on East Cliff were among the buildings that suffered from the French raid of 1377 which  destroyed most of the town by fire. As the site was already being undermined by the sea, it was deemed unwise to rebuild on the same site. The Fraternity applied to the Corporation for a new site, which was duly granted in 1379 at a place called ‘La Haltone’. Here the Friars built a new Chapel and other buildings which no longer survive.  (The Chapel, which did survive, is known today as the Monastery.)

Throughout this time and until the Reformation, the Friary also acted as sanctuary, as did the church of St. Mary’s. In 1538, as part of the Reformation and the suppression of the monasteries, the Bishop of Dover came to Rye and formally suppressed the Austin Friary.  The Mayor was ordered to detain a friar and a priest for defaming the King and Queen.      The Friars were a small body, with a Prior, under the jurisdiction of Oxford, and since the establishment of the Friary in 1364 Rye people had often made it  a beneficiary of their wills. Understandably,  they resented the suppression. 

However, their lands and buildings were taken by the Crown and the Friary remained in the Crown’s hands until 1545, when it was sold to Thomas Goodwyn, with all its buildings and property, with the exception of the legacies definitely left for the masses for the dead. Thomas Goodwyn paid the large sum of £1,112.2.6 for the Friary buildings and contents.

In 1646 we know that the Friary was owned by an Anthony Norton, who was a strong Royalist and was often in trouble with the Corporation for his strong words against that body, as indeed, was also his wife. He owned not only the Friary but all the land to the north, up to the town wall, as well as other lands and houses in the town. In about 1711, Ralph Norton, a relation of Anthony. owned the Friary as well as Whitefriars, the house opposite. The Friary Chapel, which was all that was left, the other buildings having been demolished and their stone used elsewhere in the town, acted as a store house for many years in the C19th and was in poor repair. There is a picture of it in about the 1880’s in the Museum.

In 1903, the then Vicar of Rye, the Rev. Howes, interested himself in the chapel building, and proposed its conversion into a Church House. It had been the Salvation Army Barracks for some time, but they had moved to their new Citadel in Rope Walk, later an Antique Shop. It was extensively altered by a syndicate of Churchmen, and was formally opened in 1905. After this it was used for many community events, especially during the last war, when dances were held here, and also films after the bombing of the cinema. In the 1950’s it became the home of Cinque Ports Pottery, sadly no longer operating.   

Today the Monastery awaits decisions as to its next use.   A group of influential local citizens have formed The Fletcher Group and are hoping this unique heritage from Rye’s past can become the focus of a cultual centre with theatre (commemorating the 16th century playwright John Fletcher who was born in Rye), cinema, restaurant and even a library.  

In 10 years’ time, will this building again be a source of pride for Rye? a venue for Rye Festival events?  a vibrant attraction for visitors to the town?  

Adapted from Leopold Amon Vidler,  A New History of Rye (Rye, Goulden, 1971)

by Frank Palmer

The Borough Arms and the Ship Inn circa 1900

Of the earliest Inns and Alehouses little or nothing is known and all that exists are a few early cellars beneath later buildings. What we do know is that by the sixteenth century, the Inn and Alehouse was a significant part of the Rye scene.

As an important port of embarkation the town was always busy with travellers. Merchants and the military were crossing to and from France and all required sustenance and accommodation whilst awaiting the tide.  For example, Lord D’acre stayed at Le Crowne (at the corner of West Street and High Street) on the way to meet Henry VIII at Calais in 1520. In 1574 some twenty six Inns and Alehouses could be found with ninety four beds for strangers.  

The Tower Inn circa 1890

The occupation of licensed ale housekeepers was a privileged one and  found among the more affluent members of Society, often the town’s Jurats. One of these was Richard Pedyel, owner of the Mermaid, who died in 1536.

Yet earlier at the Cinque Ports Brodhull (the name for the meetings of the Cinque Ports Confederation) held at Romney in 1465, it is recorded that no Mayors or Bailiff sha1l retail bread or ale during his term of office. Likewise breweries, of which there were several, were expensive to set up and, therefore, the preserve of the more wealthy.       

The Red Lion cirfca 1860

At times Alehouses could be of considerable concern to the town authorities, because they provided shelter to vagrants and other suspicious persons, including ‘harlotts, hores and comon women’ (sic). Various Acts gave powers to Justices to deal with these, and an Act of 1495 gave powers to suppress Alehouses. Later, an Act of 1552 gave authority to the Magistrates to licence and suppress such premises.            

  In 1581 twelve ‘common dronkards’, were banned from every tippling house in Rye. At this time some of the Inns and Alehouses were:

The Mermaid
The Red Lion  (located  where the Further Education Centre now stands but burnt down in 1872)
The George and The Swan – both at this time in the Butchery (now Market Street)
The Three Kings in Middle Street (now Mermaid Street)
The Blew Anchor (later The London Trader and now The Borough Arms, at the Strand)
Whyte Vyne (in Longer Street now the High Street)

There were many others but the principle inns were the Mermaid, the Red Lion and the George.  These were often used by the Corporation for celebratory dinners. 

The George circa 1890

 However, the Mermaid had closed by the mid eighteenth century. Louis Jennings, visiting Rye in the 1870’s wrote,

The Mermaid — still I looked about for the Mermaid Inn, I roamed up and down Mermaid Street, over rough cobble stones, loathe to give up the search. . . . ‘ . . . at the helm A seeming mermaid steers’ .                                                             

At last I met an ancient man, who looked as if with a little effort of memory he might recall the Mermaid, or perhaps be the merman who married her.  ‘Ah Sir ‘, said he, with a sigh, ‘the Inn has long since closed. How curious you should ask for it. Gone ever so long ago, Sir’.

Throughout the centuries there were always some unlicensed presmises trading illicitly and it was the duty of the constables or Sargeant at Mace to bring the offenders before the Courts.   Fines and license fees brought in necessary income, so, despite pressure from the Privy Council in London to reduce the numbers of Alehouses, the Town Council tended to impose fines that were not too punitive and tried to persuade offenders to obtain a license.

 The brewers also had an interest in supplying as many outlets as possible. It is perhaps interesting to note that in 1609 four brewers were fined for supplying beer to unlicensed tippling houses;  two of these brewers were town Magistrates.

A glance at the Passage Book of the Port of Rye, shows that in the year 1635 many important persons sailed from Rye to the continent including merchants from London, Plymouth, Norwich, Hull, Bristol, Exeter and Barnstaple, as well as Scotland and Ireland. Some forty Inns and Alehouses offered their services in the town. However, at times this proved to be a mixed blessing.

The Kings Arms and the Pipemakers Arms circa 1890

 A  report to the Council of State in 1651 stated ‘the causes of injury to the trade of the ancient town, the multiplication of strangers and the superabundance of beer houses are alleged as the chief impediments to the prosperity of the market’.

Early in the eighteenth century we find; the Two Brewers (now the Queen’s Head) the Ship without Landgate (no longer in existence) and the Dolphin, Gungarden (pulled down in 1837) for the enlargement of the Rye Union Workhouse. 

However, in general the number of inns and alehouses was falling. The billeting of troops in the town was at times a source of difficulty. Many Acts of Parliament were passed over the years that attempted to control the problems of excessive drinking. This had an effect on the number of inns and alehouses in the town.

In 1830 another statute was passed, popularly known as the Duke of Wellington’s Beerhouse Act. This Act enabled any householder assessed to the poor rate, on payment of two guineas a year, to obtain an excise licence to retail beer from his own dwelling either on or off the premises. This was an attempt to reduce the abnormal amount of spirit drinking, but resulted in a considerable increase in the number of alehouses. 

The Jolly Sailor circa 1870

At the beginning of the twentieth century a number of inns were closed down because the police opposed the licence.

Those affected by this were; the Foresters Arms and the Swan, both in the Mint, the Jolly Sailor in Church Square, the King’s Arms in Cinque Ports Street, the London Stout House (formerly Sawyers Arms) in Ferry Road, the Borough Arms in the Strand, the Tower Inn in Landgate and the Oak in the High Street, amongst others.

Sources 

Records of Rye Corporation, 1962
Tudor Rye, Mayhew 1987
A New History of Rye, Vidler, 1934
The English Public House, Monckton, 1969
Sussex Archaeological Society Collections.

by Eric Wetherill

The Old Drill Hall was situated where the Fire Station is today, along the track and then footpath that leads from Ferry Road, along beside the Windmill, to the river.

In 1911, a Veteran Reserve was formed from the 5th Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment, Cinque Ports Volunteers, because of the threat of invasion from Germany. The Drill Hall and Armoury in Mill Lane, Rye, was begun later in 1911 for the Reserve and was opened by Lord Brassey on February 27th 1912.

To the left, inside the building, was a .22 rifle range running its full length, and there are Ryers alive today who recall the Army Cadets and actually shooting on this rifle range. There were boxing matches and even dances held there. How many Rye couples first met in the Drill Hall?

It lasted in the capacity of a Drill Hall and meeting venue for fifty years, but closed its doors in 1963. It was then used by Reckett & Coleman, the manufacturer of polishes, who used the building for the next eight years. The building remained empty from 1971 until 1988, when it was demolished and the present Fire Station was built on the site.