The Gun Garden adjacent to the Ypres Tower

Ypres Tower c1885

What we now know as Ypres Tower (13th century)  was the sole defence of Rye   until  Edward III gave successive grants for the building of stone walls and gates.    Even these additional defences were found wanting when the French attacked in 1339 and alarms were frequent in the ensuing years, culminating in the attack of 1377 when Rye was razed to the ground and inhabitants put to the sword.   Whether there was a traitor in the Tower is unknown, but the Mayor and other paid with their lives at the hands of Rye citizens, and this episode marked the end of the Tower’s life as defender of the town.

For the next 50 years it was used by the Corporation for meetings and court sessions and as a prison while a new Town Hall was being built.  Without military value and with the Town Hall completed,  it was sold in 1430 to one Jean de Ypres  on condition the Mayor, Jurats and Commonality could be accommodated there in case of another attack (which never came).

In 1518 the Corporation bought it back again – for £26 — and for the next 300 years  the Tower was used as a prison;  it eventually housed the town mortuary too (that use ceased only in 1956).    Shortly after the purchase of the Tower, the Corporation purchased the land just below it from a private individual and stored its cannon and ammunition there.

Model of 16th century brass cannon

In the days of Good Queen Bess (1533-1603) the Gun Garden was constructed on this land, its wall strengthened, a platform built for the placing of guns and in 1545, for security,  a gate attached to the Ypres Tower (pulled down in 1735).  A great deal of money was spent  on heavy ordnance (some provided by the Crown ) as well as gunpowder and shot.  Thus Rye was an important artillery position at the time of the Spanish Armada when the sea beyond swarmed with hundreds of ships, some of them built and crewed by Ryers.    For their services,  Queen Elizabeth I presented  six beautiful brass guns, long gone.    It is said that other cannon in the Gun Garden at one time were Spanish  — perhaps from one of the many wrecked Spanish ships.

In 1649 however, there was a change of use.  There was now no immediate threat so the Gun Garden became a peaceful bowling green open to residents.   In 1695 it was hired by an individual ‘for coneys to feed on’.  The rabbits were to be delivered to the Corporation, while Rye inhabitants were free to pass over the premises and to play bowls.

Ypres from Fishmarket c 1900

In 1697 stairs were built going down the cliff (those leading to the Ypres Castle pub today).  At this time, of course,  the river below was lined with shipbuilding yards.

• In 1728 the Corporation  took the Gun Garden back and  in 1740 it was being made ready for defence once more;  war with France, Saxony and Bavaria was expected.  The gun platform was improved, there were upper and lower batteries, a house for the Gunner, and barracks.   A lookout shed was built in 1785.

Cinque Ports Volunteer 1803

During the Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). each Cinque Ports raised a corps of volunteers. The Rye Corps drilled in the Gun Garden.

The term ‘Gun Garden’ seems to have once applied to the area all around the Tower—not just to the flat area below the Tower.  Surrounding the Tower over the years there have been  a number of buildings which no longer exist:  houses for the Gaoler and Gunner, for example,  barracks, the Battery building which once housed the Rye Museum, but was destroyed in WW II. . . .

In 1791 the Corporation bought one of the houses (between the present Methodist Church and the steps down to the Gun Garden)  and turned it into a Workhouse, extended by the purchase of the Dolphin Inn and serving until 1844 when new legislation led to a larger workhouse for the entire area up Rye Hill. Also in the 1790s in the face of population increase and inflation there was an attempt to make workhouse administration more efficient and less costly.   A manufactory was built just below the Gun Garden on ‘Factory Marsh’ where the poor (who already did much oakum picking) made hop bags and sacking.  This was not a success and the factory was closed three years later.

In 1819 a crowd of 60,000 – 80,000 gathered in Manchester  to demand reform of parliamentary representation.   Cavalry charged  and there were deaths and many injuries (dubbed the Peterloo Massacre) – and subsequently, a crackdown  on reform from a panicked government.   Rye was ordered to send its cannons and ammunition to London; the platforms were left with empty sockets.   (This was not the last time Rye cannons left the Gun Gardens;  even in World War II  some were melted down.

Preparing for Prize Firing Day c1873

Guns came back however.  A series of ‘war scares’ began in 1859 and led to a revival of the volunteer movement in Rye;   it became a popular pastime for those with a taste for military life and there were various groups and names (e.g.  the Rye District Rifle Company).   Between 1862 and 1876 (when it was disbanded) the Rye Military Artillery Corps  used the Gun Garden Battery for their gun drills twice each week and hosted a yearly event known as Prize Firing Day.   This became one of Rye’s chief gala days. All the Cinque Ports companies sent teams and the old Battery under the Ypres Tower reverberated to the roar of seven 8-pounders which had a range of 1300 yards.  Special trains brought onlookers, there was a grand march past and a presentation of prizes .  In later years men trained in the variously named volunteer corps served in the Boer War and World War I.

There have been other uses of the Gun Garden.  In 1870 a Soup Kitchen was built against the Ypres Tower (where the old gate had been)  and the town’s poor came here for food.. It was considered an eyesore by the local Association for the Preservation of Our Ancient Buildings who in 1890 insisted that it be demolished and moved to Cinque Ports Street.

Gun Garden c1920

In 1881 the guns were fired for the Duchess of Kent’s funeral.    In 1918 after the armistice was signed, the Corporation accepted  two captured German guns from the War Trophies Committee for Gungarden.

In 1925 the Gun Garden  was purchased from the War Department by the Rye Corporation; the area south of the Ypres Tower was thrown open to the public as a pleasant haven and a place from which to admire views of the surrounding country.  From 1928 Battery House, the building to the north of the Ypres Tower,  was used as the town museum.

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Gun Garden after Raid Sept. 1942

However, on 22 September 1942 it and the adjoining buildings were badly damaged in an air raid– and the Tower losts its pyramidal roof.

In 1980 Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and  first lady Warden of Cinque Ports visited Rye.  There were by now no guns,  so to honour her visit Ryers raised money and the local foundry and woodworkers made replicas and presented them to the Queen Mother – for Rye’s Gun Garden.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Gun Garden Leisure Grounds

In the 1950s and 1960s the Gun Garden sported flower beds and deck chairs.   It is still a popular place for Ryers and visitors to meet and look out to the Marsh, the boats on the river,  and further, to Rye Harbour and the Channel.

View to east

Jean Floyd

THE FIRST JEAKES OF RYE

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.

SAMUEL JEAKES II

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.

Hartshorn House c1870

THE OLD HOSPITAL

On the north side of Mermaid Street is a half-timbered Tudor building with three overhanging gables, called the Old Hospital because of its service in that capacity during the Napoleonic wars. In earlier times it had been Hartshorne House, given to Samuel Jeake II as part of his dowry on marrying the young Elizabeth Hartshorne, whereupon it became generally known as Jcake’s House – confusing for later historians

Samuel and his father took possession of this property several months before the actual wedding, though the younger man complained repeatedly before and after marriage about mischievous spirits of a rather inferior order groaning and sighing about his bed and playing pranks with his walking sticks.
As trade prospered, he determined to build a wool storehouse on the other side of the street, and consulted the stars regarding the most propitious date.

JEAKE’S HOUSE  Precisely at noon on 13th June 1689,, the foundation of the storehouse, which is now simply called Jeake’s House, was laid, “the first stone by myself under this positure of heaven.” A stone plaque set high in the front wall of the present building shows the astrological aspect of the heavens which he found so crucial.

Samuel and Elizabeth had six children, all of whom died without issue. Towards the end of his own life in 1699 at the age of 47, Samuel II planned to erect a Nonconformist meeting-house next door to his wool store. After his death his widow remarried, and through her daughter Philadelphia their family home, Hartshorne House, descended eventually to the Frewen family, a respected name in Rye. Elizabeth completed the task of building the meetinghouse, and licence for its opening was granted in 1703.

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.

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 vears, 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.

Jeake's House

There are several theories as to the origin of the name.  The most likely is that the street outside (Market Street) used to be known as ‘The Butchery’ and the old English word for a butcher was a “flesher”.   The original Fleshers Inn,  it is thought, became corrupted to Flushing Inn.

The Building

There are many ancient timber-framed building in Rye of particular historic interest and the Flushing Inn is certainly one of them.   It stands at the corner of the former Pump Street (now part of Church Square) and Market Street.  The original building of 1200-1230 was destroyed in the disastrous fire after the Frensh attack in 1377 but the barrel-vaulted Norman cellar has survived and remained in use.   The present building dates from about 1300-1450.   In 1850 the original Flushing Inn was divided into three properties but in 1994 it was restored to its original state.

Rye’s Most Popular Story

In 1742 the landlord of the Flushing was John Breads (Breeds) who also had a butcher’s shop in the yard of the Inn and is best remembered in Rye for ‘The Murder in the Chuchyard”. In the  most popular version of the story  Breads bore a grudge against the Mayor, James Lamb,  because he had fined him for selling short weight.  One night he lay in wait  for the mayor in the churchyard and when he saw  the Mayor’s cloak approaching, stabbed the man wearing it–who turned out to be Lamb’s brother-in-law Alan Grebell.  Grebell, a former Mayor,  had borrowed the cloak to attend a shipboard function in the current Mayor’s  place.   According to the popular story, Breads was heard shouting  ‘Butchers should kill Lambs’.     He was captured and tried–by James Lamb!   He was convicted and hanged and because his crime was considered especially heinous,  his corpse was gibbeted and  left hanging in an iron cage for all to see. Local  women stole bits of him for their potions, but the town still has the gibbet with his skull,  a replica being  on display at the Rye Heritage Centre.  

A bit of research will reveal other versions of events — including the possibility that Breads was framed . . .

The Tudor Fresco

There was an exciting discovery in 1901, behind panelling on the East wall of the old hall of the building:  Plaster work was uncovered which revealed a remarkable wall painting dating from the first part of the 16th century.  It measures eighteen feet by seven feet.   Probably the most important thing about it is  the frieze with Tudor roses, the coat of arms of Jane Seymour dated 1537 and the Royal Arms of England “King Edward VI 1547″.   The painting was damaged during World War II but was renovated in 1997 and is in a good state of preservation. 

The Inn has recently celebrated 50 years as a family run Inn under the same ownership but has now been sold as a private house.  It will be missed as an Inn by those who know Rye.

With acknowledgements to the Mann/Flynn family of The Flushing Inn 1960 – 2010.

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.

Lamb House (Drawing by Brian Hargreaves)

It is a modest brick-fronted Georgian house completed  by James Lamb in 1723, the same year in which he became Mayor for the first time.

One of the most famous stories about Lamb House concerns George I.   In 1726 the King was returning from Hanover to open Parliament when he was driven ashore by a terrible storm, landing at Camber Sands.   James Lamb escorted the King to his house where the family entertained him for three days though George spoke very little English and the Lambs knew no   German.  On the very first night Mrs Lamb gave birth to a baby boy.  The King  agreed to act as godfather at the christening of the baby in St Mary’s church; the boy was named George.

The Garden House (destroyed 1940) with Lamb House on the right

The family sold the house in 1860. Some thirty years later Henry James visited Rye and  was attracted to the house, n ot expecting he could ever acquire it.  But in 1899, age 55 and already an established literary figure on both sides of the Atlantic,  he was able to report ‘It has fallen’ and he bought the property for £2000.  He spent most of the last 18 years of his life in Lamb Hsome of his ouse and wrote some of his most highly regarded works here, including The Awkward Age, The Wings of a Dove, The Ambassadors and The Golden Bowl.      In the winter he dictated his work to his secretary in the green Room on the first floor but in the summer months he preferred the Garden House which stood at the top of West Stree0.   t at right angles to the main house.  Unfortunately, the Garden House was destroyed by a bomb in 1940.   

Henry James entertained many eminent figures of the day at Lamb House, among them H.G. Wells,  A.C.and E.F. Benson, Max Beerbohm. Hilaire Belloc, G.K. Chesterton, Joseph Conrad, Stephen Crane, Ford Maddox Ford, Edmund Gosse, Rudyard Kipling,  Hugh Walpole  and  Edith Wharton.

After James’ death  in 1918 the house became the home of  brothers, A.C. and E.F. Benson.    The view from the bow window of the Garden House was to give E.F. Benson the inspiration for his Mapp and Lucia novels. 

In 1950 the widow of Henry James’ nephew and heir,  Mrs Henry James Jr., presented Lamb House to the National Trust.   It is opento visitors two days a week April – October.   Besides the  furniture, library, portraits and Jamesian memorabilia on display, visitors can stroll in the lovely walled garden where occasional performances e.g. of Shakespeare plays are staged.  As for E.F. Benson, regular tours  are conductedwhich connect events and people in the Mapp and Lucia books to their Rye locations.

Further information on the Lambs, the house and its residents is available on other parts of this website,  via the Internet and in the National Trust booklet Henry James and Lamb House.   Further information  on writers who have lived in Rye is available here and on Rye Eye –> Literary Rye.

Rye’s Oldest Coaching Inn 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ypres Tower Today (Photo by Clive Sawyer)

Ypres Tower, etching by Hooper

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. 

 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.  

Ypres Tower, painting by Borrow

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 consistenting 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. 

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 

Women's Tower (drawing by Brian Hargreaves)

 (the present Medieval Garden), four additional cells, and a tower for housing women prisoners (now the focus of the Women’s Tower Project). 

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. 

 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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 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.

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