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.

Slightly adapted from  Rye’s Own 150 (January 2007)

Note preceding the article:  A remarkable account of Rye Cattle Market appeared in a 1937 Handbook, demonstrating  how well Rye Market was doing in the period just before World War Two. This success was carried into the forties. From 1970 onwards support dwindled. The Market was closed as a result of the Foot and Mouth outbreak at the beginning of the Millennium . Sadly it failed to re-open and is now a car park.   The article is in two parts:  1.  The Market to 1937     2.  Rye Market Today (1937)

I.  Rye Cattle Market to 1937

Rye, easily accessible and on the edge of Romney Marsh known for its sheet,  proved to be ideally located to become a market,town and a centre for the gathering of producers and the bartering stock,  produce and commodities.

For many years, the market was held on the site of Market Road and the highway of Cinque Port Street, the Tolls being collected by the Pomfrets, a local  landowning  and banking family.�
During the  nineteenth century as  the use  of highways increased and trade expanded,  more convenient and effective arrangements were desire d so  the farmers and dealers of the district  convened meetings with the objective of obtaining a sufficient space to hold markets for the purchase and sale of livestock without interfering with the activities of the  town’s tradespeaple and travellers passing through. the town.

The outcome of the series of meetings was The Rye Cattle Market Company Limited,  regitered in the year 1859.  It was subscribed to and supported by local farmers, dealers and tradespeople. The  aims of the Dompany as set out in the Memorandum of Association were “to provide a new Cattle Market site at Rye with the requiste fittings, erections, roadways, building and the doing of all such other things as are incidedntal or conducive to the attainment of such objects.”

A plot of land was acquired from the Rev. George Augustus Lamb who had entered into a contract for buying it from the South Eastern Railway Company.   The site consisted of two acres of level ground adjoining the railway station and was thus close to the centre of town and convenient for producers in the surrounding districts. In the same year as the Company was incorporated a contract was entered into for the erection of a Central Market Hall and arrangements made for pens to accommodate stock entering the market. The Company also arranged for the provision of railway sidings to the market so stock could be transported to and from  Rye by rail.

Increasing trade led to a further Hall being built in the year 1873 on the eastern side of the market premises.  This building was known as the Agricultural Hall and it was here that the main portion of the annual cattle shows were staged for many years.    The hiring of a further piece of land from the South Eastern Railway in 1883 increased the market space to 2.5 acres.  A decade later a part of the market was paved with boulders and covered with tar and road sweepings and the market completely enclosed by a new fence.

As there was a considerable amount of capital tied up in the Agricultural Hall,  the Directors decided in 1912 to sell it and use the money for various improvements to the Market.   This made it possible in 1913 to pave the whole \market making it suitable for vehicles bringing stock.  Throughout the  seventy-nine years years   of  business [i.e. 1859 - 1937, the date of the article] the premises have been kept in good repair with further improvements carried out. 

It is interesting to record that the first Toll Collector of the Rye Cattle Market in 1859 was Mr James Ney who held this position for a period of fifty-nine years and upon his death in 1914 he was succeeded by his son who is our present Toll Collector.  There has therefore been a continuity of service for seventy-nine years.

 II. Rye Market  Today (1937)

The Rye Market is owned by the Rye Cattle Market Company Limited, which is now in its seventy-ninth year of business. The market remains upon the site where it was originally established in 1859 and is still situated for the holding of sales.  The market premises are well preserved and are maintained in excellent repair. All permanent pens are of iron with cement or brick foundations and
are cleaned and scrubbed after every market. The market is controlled by the Company’s Directors who are composed of practical agriculturalists fully cognizant with the local conditions and requirements.   The Company have always shown that they are prepared to receive helpful suggestions for the improvement in any connection with the market or the working thereof.

Markets are held on alternate Wednesdays for general sales and business. Special markets for sale of sheep and lambs, an annual ram sale and special Christmas Market for the sale of fat stock are also held, notices of same being displayed beforehand. A produce sale is held at the Market Hall on alternative Fridays previous to Market day.

The number of animals entered for sale in Rye Market during the twelve months ending 17th. February, 1937, was 44,049 made up as follows:-

Sheep and lambs:  36683
Beasts and calves:   3596
Horses:                                      7
Pigs:                                  3762

There was also a considerable head of poultry and a large quantity of eggs, fruit, vegetables and other produce sold in the market. 

Sheep and Lambs.     
It will be noted from the records of animals entering the market, that there is a high percentage of sheep and lambs and this is due to the fact that Rye Market is situated on the borders of Romney Marsh and in the midst of a sheep rearing disstrict.  As many as 4,990  fat sheep and lambs have been sold in one day of an ordinary market.   A spacious section of the market is therefore reserved for sheep, comprised of iron pens, the floors being paved with bricks or asphalt.  Total accommodation for sheep is 5200.

The special sales for sheep and lambs are usually held in July and August and these attract a great number of buyers from adjoining Counties.  A Ram sale is also held in October, at which stock from the well-known flocks of Romney Marsh are offered for sale.

Beasts and Calves
There is a steady supply of Fat Cattle throughout the year and,accommodation is provided for 200 beasts.  The market has been authorised as an approved centre for the sale of Fat Cattle under the Cattle Industry Emergency Provisions Bill, 1934 and 1936, which has resulted in a considerable increase in the number of beasts entering the market. There is a fair trade for calves and covered accommodation for 150 animals is available.

Pig Market
The pig market is situated in a sheltered section of the market place, the pens being of iron with brick or asphalt floors, the majority of which have corrugated sheets along the sides as a protection against the elements.   The predominating class of pigs offered are fat pigs and store pigs which constitute a steady supply and demand throughout the year. There is a continual increase in the number of pigs offered for sale annually, as may be indicated by the following figures: 

 1928 Entries – 1477,      1937 Entries – 3762, being an increase of 2285 for the year.     There is an accommodation for 250 fat pigs.

Corn Market
The Corn Market was for many years held at the  George Hotel and was transferred to the new Market premises in the year 1860.  Corn Merchants and Dealers have their stands in the main Market Hall on ordinary market days, where a steady business is well maintained.

 They Took Over The Town Hall

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

Seeds of revolt

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

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

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

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

Two elections, Two mayors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last reading of the Riot Act

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

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

End of a dynasty

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

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

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

End note:

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

Rye’s Oldest Coaching Inn 

Gemma Pocock  

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.

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

  The article  begins:    

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

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

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

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

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

Geoffrey Spink Bagley 1901- 1992

 Beginnings 

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

Geoffrey  Bagley as Canadian Artist 

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

Geoffrey Bagley as Artist of Rye  

Courtyard, Mermaid Inn by Geoffrey Bagley

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

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

Geoffrey Bagley and the Rye Society of Artists  

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

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

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

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

Net Houses, Hastings

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

News Flashes

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

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

There will be no Coffee Morning in September.

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

Exploring Rye with Brian Hargreaves

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

Reminders:  The Ypres Tower is now open all day.

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

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

Recent Events 

 July 3 

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

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

July 13th Visit to Bexhill Museum   

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

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

Earlier posts give details of earlier events.

About our Museum sites 

 Ypres Tower site

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

A reminder of what else is in the Tower     

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

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

What is in the East Street Museum?     

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

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

Publications

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

 On being a Volunteer

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

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

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

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

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

Rye Museum Website   

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

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

Book News

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

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

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

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

New looks at Rye

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

Do you have these yet?

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

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

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

“Rye Royal”
The Visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
August 11, 1573

 from Samuel Jeakes, Charters of the Cinque Ports  “wrote in 1678″

Queen Elizabeth, in 1573, who, from the noble entertainment she had, accompanied with the Testimonies of Love and Loyalty, Duty and Reverence she received from the People was pleased to call it “Rye Royal.”

from William Holloway, Rambles Through Rye  (1863)                                                                                        

. . . . . as we are close by let us turn our steps to that quiet sequestered hollow in which now lies the well known as Queen Elizabeth’s, overshadowed with those old oaks, the probable descendents of the primeval Forest of Anderida, a well, the existence of which has been recognised from A.D. 1247 to A.D. 1863, more than 600 years.

That Queen Elizabeth halted by this well* I will not dispute; but that she drank I do very much doubt as Her Majesty’s favourite morning beverage was the best ale she could procure.  Here probably she halted to receive the Mayor and Corporation, who came out to welcome Her Majesty. all clad in scarlet robes, from whence they conducted her to the town through the Postern Gate, then standing at the foot of Conduit Hill, on which occasion our good Queen Bess was so highly gratified with their loyal conduct, and their most royal appearance that she dubbed the old town “Rye Royal”.

The inscription on a stone at the head of the well is as follows:

1588
E.R.
M.Gaymer’Maior

But this is a mere ignis fatuus only calculated to lead the benighted traveller astray: for the Queen’s visit was on August 11, 1573, when John Donnyng was Mayor and the discrepancy we can onlybe  accounted  for by supposing that the Corporation conscience (if a Corporation has a conscience, which is doubtful, if it be true, as some affirm, that a Corporation has no body to be kicked, and no soul to be damned) after a slumber of 15 years, awoke to a sense of its error, when they thought they might as well kill two birds with one stone, and at one and same time, and so recorded the Queen’s visit to the well and the destruction of the Spanish Armada, A.D. 1588.
 

The quotations here have been culled from Iain Finlayson’s excellent book Writers in Romney Marsh (London: Severn House 1986). The book’s chapters include Henry James at Lamb House, EF Benson at Lamb House, Radclyffe Hall in Rye,  Conrad Aiken at Jeake’s House, as well as Joseph Conrad in Kent and Ford Madox Hueffer  in Kent  (both also lived briefly in Winchelsea)  Stephen Crane at Brede and HG Wells at Sandgate. The last chapter contains smaller pieces on writers such as John Fletcher, Richard Harris Barham, Edith Nesbitt, Russell Thorndike, Noel Coward, Sheila Kaye-Smith and Patric Dickinson.  An essential read for anyone interested in Rye and Romney Marsh in literature.    

From writers on Rye

E.F. Benson, who lived in Lamb House after Henry James, claimed that

I had not come to Rye for any reason except to be there  [but discovered] a stable and solidified sense of home. . .  A few months sufficed to convince me that I was not in Rye, but of it. . . . To be there made me content: its cobbled ways and its marsh with its huge sjky, as at sea, and in particular the house and the garden-room and the garden were making a ferment of their own in my veins, not because they were  associated with any cheristed and intimate experiences, but because they were themselves.

And once here it was not long before he had

outlined an elderly atrocious spinster and established her in Lamb House.  She should be the centre of social life, abhorred and dominant, and she should sit like a great spider behind the curtains in the garden room, spying on her friends, and I knew that her name must be Elizabeth Mapp.  Rye should furnish the topography, so that no one who knew Rye could possibly be in doubt where the scene was laid, and I would call it Tilling because Rye has its river the Tillingham . . .

For more on E.F. Benson and Rye click here. 

Radclyffe Hall’s novel about Rye, The  Sixth  Beatitude  is set in Hucksteps Row (it is Crofts Lane in the book) . The main character, Hannah Bullen, saw Rye as it

stood peacefully dreaming, sleeping and dreaming aove the Marsh. . . it would become something more than a town, especially on the warm July evenigns when the dusk lay folded along its streets, and the ships lighted port and starboarfd lanterns, and the past. . . came wandering craftily into the present . . . 

Praise has not been universal, however.  The travel writer Paul Theroux wrote a rather grumpy book about his tour of the British coast and said of Rye that it was

the quaintest town in this corner of England, but so museum-like in its quaitness that I found myself walking along the cobblestone streets with my hands behind my back, treating the town in my monkish manner of subdued appreciation like a person in a gallery full of Do Not Touch signs.  Rye was not a restful place.  It had the atmosphere of a china shop. It urged you to remark on the pretty houses and the well-kept gardens and the self-conscious sign painting, a d then it demanded that you move on.

Even Henry James, who did love Rye, could occasionally  find some imperfections in its ‘whole pleasant little pathos’.  He had visited and stayed in Rye, at Point Hill and then at the Old Vicarage in Rye where he could gaze wistfully each day at Lamb House which he ‘secretly and hopelessly coveted’ .

The peace and prettiness of the whole land here . . . has been good to me, and I stay on with unabated relish . . .

and when it unexpectedly became possible for him to sigtn a lease on the coveted house,  ‘It is exactly what I want . . . ‘  , describing it to his sister-in-;aw, Mrs William james, as

the very calmest yet cheerfullest that I could have dreamed . . . in the little old, cobblestoned, grass-grown red-roofed town, on the summit of its mildly pyramidal hill and close to its noble old church — the chimes of which will sound sweetly in my goodly old red-walled garden.  The little place is so rural and tranquil and yet so discreetly animated, that its being within the town is, for convenience and immediatte accessibility, purely to the good . . . .

It is later that his delight in Rye is occasionally  tinged with nostalgia for Europe

The best hour is that at which the compact little pyramid of Rye, crowned with its big but stunted church and quite covered by the westering sun, gives out the full measure of its old browns that turn to red and its old reds that turn to purple.  These tones of evening are now pretty much all that Rye has left to give, but there are truely, sometimes, conditions of atmosphere in which I have seen the effect as fantastic.

I sigh when I think, however, what it might have been if, perfectly placed as it is, the church tower == which in its more perverse moods only resembles a big central button, a knob on a pin cushion — had had the grace of a few more feet of stature  [which, he says it would have had if the place were French or Italian!]

Yet most of the time it was well-nigh perfect, a dream fulfilled, as he tells his sister-in-law in another letter:

All the good that I hoped of the place has, in fine, profusely  bloomed and flourished here.  It was really about the end of September, when the various summer supernumeraries had quite faded away, that the special note of Rye, the feeling of the little hilltop community bound together like a very modest, obscure and impecunious, but virtuous and amiable famly, began more unmistakesably to come out . . .  But the great charm is simply being here, and in particular the beginning of day no longer with the London blackness and foulness . . . but with the pleasant, sunny garden outlook, the grass all haunted with starlings and chaffinches, and the in-and-out relation with it that in a manner gilds and refreshes the day. This indeed — with work and a few, a very few people –in the all.

The poet Patric Dickinson  lived much of his adult life on Church Square.   He called Rye a place ‘betwen past and future’,  a ‘beautifully jewelled brooch/Worn at South Enaldnd’s throat’.  Here are three  further poems of his from Poems from Rye (Martello Bookshop 1979) .  Click here for the two already on the site. 

But Time is different here
     The streets are full beggars
You cannot see, who speak
     The tongues of centuries
          To the deaf tourists

The town keeps whispering
     Its history — fishermen, merchants –
Lifetimes that have been built
     From unimportant scraps
          To construct a clement

Enclave and santuary.
     Once you have understood this,
You will feel Rye within,
     And be disposed to come back,
          If you ever leave it.

The second poem is a most  unflattering one of some tourists (just a few?); it is probably safe to say that none of them will be looking at this website:

Tourists of a Sort 

Through our streets the morons shamble
     Asking for Woolworths,
Waiting for the Quarter Boys
     To strike at the hour.

They pile our streets with little and fag-ends,
     Too-fat adults and kids
Slupring ice-cream as they lurch on the cobbles,
     Gawping and peering

Poor flatulent boobs, they’re only goind
     What the God Teev bids.
If they should see the date on the exquisite
    Queen Anne weathercock,

They might have heard she’s dead, but precious
     Little else.  I have been asked
About equally for the way to the Catholic
     Church and to Woolworths.

But once, an ace-moron, a master-shambler,
     Stopped me and angrily
Snarled ‘Where’s the town?’  And one’s overhead,
     Crossing the churchyard,

‘We;ve half an hour to spare, whatever shall we
      Do?  We had better
Go back to Woolworths, dear.’  Oh indeed yes
     They better had.

The weathercock glints in the moonlight
     The winds blow through its date,
And in the moonlight river and sea
     Perpetually meet.

But it is only fair to show that Dickinson was not against all visitors and newcomers

Telegrams boought it:  this somewhat impecunious
Cosmopolitcan genius from fashionable London
Saw veritable home, and came and put his roots in
          This exquisite backwater.

And what came up was exotic and yet naive,
An American — almost Ryer, a curious
Equation, but he was.  The first tourist to settle,
          Also the greatest.

From writers on Romney Marsh

Richard Harris Barham:

In Mrs Botherby’s Story: The Leech of Folkstone, a tale in The Ingoldsby Legends, Barham remarks::

The World, according to the best geographers, is divided into Europe, Asia, Africa, America and Romney Marsh.’

Rudyard Kipling  echoes this in the character of Tom Shoesmith in The Dymchurch Flit from Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill): 

Won’erful odd-gates place — Romney Marsh . . . I’ve heard say the world’s divided like into Europe, Asahy, Afriky, Ameriky,, Australy, an’ Romney Marsh.  Tom goes on to say: The Marsh is justabout riddled with diks an’sluices, an’tide -gates an’water-lets.  You can hear ‘em bubblin’ and grummelin’when the tide works in ‘em, an’ then you hear the sea rangin’ left and right-handed all up along the Wall.  You’ve seen how flat she is — the Marsh?  You’d think nothin’easier than to walk eend-on acrost her?  Ah, but the diks an’the water-lets;, they twists the roads about as revelly as witch-yarn on the spindles. So ye get all turned round in broad daylight.

Ford Madox Hueffner (later known as  Ford Madox Ford) thought Romney Marsh

 an infectious and holding neighbourhood. Once you go there you are apt to stay.  

He refers to inducements to come to Rye and Winchelsea:

An historic patina covers their buildings more deeply than any others, in England at least.  Indeed, I know of no place save for Paris, where memories seem to think on every stone.  The climate, too, is very mild.  There is practically no day  throughout the year on which a proper man cannot eat his meals under a south wall out of doors.

H.G. Wells, in Kipps, has the eponymous character remember joys of the Marsh:

. . . glorious days of ‘mucking about’,along the beach, the siege of unresisting Martello towers, the incessant interest of the mystery and motion of windmills, the windy excursions with boarded feet over the yielding shingle to Dungeness lighthouse . . . wanderings in the hedgeless, reedy marsh, long excursions reaching even to Hythe, where the machine guns of the Empire are forever whirring and tapping, and old Rye and Winchelsea perched like dream-cities on their little hills.  The sky in these memories was the blazing hemisphere of the marsh heaven in summer, or its wintry tumult of sky and sea, and there were wrecks, real wrecks, in it (near Dymchurch pitched high and blackened and rotting were were ribs of a fishing smack, flung aside like an empty basket when the sea had devoured its crew) and there was bathing all naked in the sea, bathing to one’s armpits, and even trying to swim in the warm sea=water (spite  aunt’s prohibition) and (with her indulgence) the rare eating of dinner from a paper parcel miles away from home.

Coventry Patmore, who disliked mountains, claimed that year after year he looked upon the Marsh from the walls of Rye ‘always with new delight’,  discovering there 

. . . the peaceful  and touching charms which render the plain more than a rival to the mountain in the eyes of all who find in human associations, more or less remote, the ground of the truest beauty in landscape.

He declared it ‘very Dutch in its peculiar beautires’ but  that it surpasses

in truly artistic beauty, the scenery alike of Holland, Switzerland. . . . The plain, in each case [of the Sussex Marshes], is great enough to expand and satisfy the eye.  It is, in each case, set off by the immediate neighbourhood of hills not less than eight hundred feet high – - an altitude which, in our atmosphere, is quite as good as three thousand in Italy or the South of France

and he praised

the sight of masts and sails at more or less remote distances, impressing us with the presence of the sea even more powerfully than the actual sight of it would.

And J.M.W. Turner, foremost British landscape painter, having been introduced to Rye, Winchelsea, and the Camber, Pett and Brede Levels said, according to Patmore::

that he had seen there, in our one day’s visit, more subjects for pictures than he had ever met with in any other part of Europe in a week.

For more quotations about Rye from Patmore and other visitors, click here.

News Flashes  

Captain Pugwash is  60 years old this year!  To celebrate his birthday the Museum is giving him a bigger display case at East Street, with new objects donated by John Ryan;s wife and collaborator Priscilla and their daughter Isabel.  This should be ready for viewing in early July.  And if you haven’t seen the Rye Tower Embroidery in pride of place at the Ypres Tower do go to see it–and all the other changes at that site. For more information scroll down.

Not sure about Summer opening times?  Scroll down to learn of the changes.

Events

Our June events are now over: a Quiz Night (5th June) which went so well we’ll do it again, a talk on Arthurian Herbs, the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris  by Lin Saines (8th June) enhanced with slides, music and food-of-the-past and our monthly Coffee Morning (12th  June).     Make sure this next major event is in your diary!

Tuesday 13^th July
Trip to the newly refurbished Bexhill Museum including tour
Join Rother District Curator, Julian Porter, on a tour of the new refurbishment of Bexhill Museum including the new Motoring Gallery and the Costume and Social History Gallery.  This will be an afternoon trip.  If you haven’t an application form and would like to come ring the Museum: 01797-226728  or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk

To find out what has been happening at the Museum lately, keep scrolling down.

  Change of Opening Times at East Street !

On lst May Rye Castle Museum changed the opening times of the East Street site.  The decision to keep the Ypres Tower site open during the lunch hour all seven days of the week has been so successful in bringing in more visitors (4 times as many in May 2010 as in May 2009!) that we now  stay open at East Street all day –including the lunch hours–too,  i.e. from 10.30 to 5.00 (last admittance 4.30) during the weekends and Bank Holidays.  However, this site is closed during the week.  We run entirely on the good will of volunteers and this concentration on maximum weekend and holiday opening is proving a more fruitful way to use their valuable time as stewards.   If you aren’t already a volunteer steward do think about joining us!     See the note below under On Being a Volunteer.

Special requests:  Please note that the East Street museum can be opened by special request during the week.  Please contact the Museum: 01797 226728, or info@ryemuseum.co.uk

 Ypres Tower site

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

The Ypres Tower site will continue to open 7 days a week throughout the Summ er season, from 10.30am to 5.00pm (last entry 4.30).  Note that it remains open during the lunch hour.

A reminder of what else is in the Tower

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

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

What is in the East Street Museum?

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

For more on this site, click on Museum Sites above.

Publications:  The list of Museum books, booklets, maps, postcards and DVDs has just been added to the site.  Click here to see it.   We are not at present able to provide a postal service, but the full range of titles is available at the East Street site and our topsellers at the Ypres Tower.

Scroll down for more Book News.

 On being a Volunteer

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

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Recent Museum Events

We certainly get some interesting visitors at the Museum! 

Ghost Connections is a small team of people based in Kent who have been conducting investigations of alleged hauntings and paranormal phenomena throughout the South East of England since 2004.   In April, they spent a night in the Ypres Tower.  The team used a range of equipment placed throughout both the Ypres Tower and the Women’s Tower which enabled them to use a variety of  investigation methods. Their equipment was monitored throughout the evening and the results documented.  Their report can  be found on their website at www.ghostconnections.co.uk. The group’s email address is enquiries@ghostconnections.com?”

April was a busy month.  We  also had three successful and well-attended events in April:  our monthly Coffee Morning,  a very informative, interesting and even entertaining talk by Dr Graham Mayhew (author of Tudor Rye) on the religion-infused lives of Ryers in medieval and pre-Reformation times, and  another informative, interesting and entertaining talk by Donna Bilak , who shared her excitement at what she has found in Rye Museum documents on Samuel Jeake to further her research for a PhD on Restoration Rye.   We’ll be receiving the finished outcome of her efforts in due course.  

And in May we have now had another of our popular coffee mornings and an exciting talk by the man–Albert Granville – whose firm’s crane ship made it possible to raise the Mary Rose after it had lain in the mud and sand of the Solent for over 500 years.  Mr Granville is a master storyteller and kept his audience spellbound.  

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

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

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

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

Rye Museum Website   

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

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

 Book News

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

Copies may  be purchased at the Rye Heritage Cente  or  at either of the Museum sites.   All proceeds will go to the Women’ s  Tower Project so that this part of Ypres Tower, home of the Rye Museum, can be restored and re-roofed  and brought into active use.  t

New looks at Rye

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

Do you have these yet?

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

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

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

E.F.Benson was born at Wellington College on July 24th 1867.  Fred, as he was known to his family, was the fifth child born to Edward and Mary Benson. His father was the first Master of Wellington College, which had been established in 1858, under the guiding hand of Prince Albert. 

In 1873 the family moved to Lincoln, where Edward had been appointed Chancellor. Then in 1876 came the move to Cornwall, when Edward become the first Bishop of Truro. E.F.Benson started his education at Temple Grove, near East Sheen in Surrey, just after Easter 1878. In September 1881, he began at Marlborough College and remained there until 1887. These were to be amongst the happiest days of his life, and he wrote about them, and his days at Cambridge, in three books; David Blaize (1916) and David of King’s (1924), both of which were very popular during and after the First War, and The Babe, B.A. (1896).

In 1882 his father became Archbishop of Canterbury, and the family moved to Lambeth Palace. After leaving Marlborough, E.F.Benson went to King’s College, Cambridge from 1887 to 1891, and took a double first in Classics and Archaeology.  After Cambridge he pursued his archaeological interests at digs in Britain and then attended the British School of Archaeology in Athens. From here he worked on sites both in Greece and Egypt.

In 1893 he published his first novel, Dodo, which was an immediate best seller and quite a sensation amongst Society. It remained in print throughout his life and to many of his pre-1914 friends, he was known as ‘Dodo Benson’. His father died in 1896 and after this he gave up archaeology to become a full time writer. From 1893 until his death he published at least one, if not two books each year. His novels until 1914 were best sellers, typical of which was Mammon & Co (1899), which sold eight thousand copies on the day of publication.  He moved with his mother and sister to Winchester in 1897 and over a  year later to Tremans at Horstead Keynes, Sussex, which was to remain his mother’s home until her death in 1918.

In 1900 Benson began to live in London and led the life of a successful Edwardian socialite, being a constant guest at fashionable country house parties. Initially he lived in Barton Street,  Westminster, moving subsequently to Grosvenor Mansions  in Oxford Street. He spent his summers in Italy, often on Capri, where he leased a villa. Autumn saw him in Venice at Lady Radnor’s Pallazzo, where she had grand musical parties, at the new Bayreuth Festivals,  and also Scotland.  He wintered  at Davos, or other ski resorts, which he helped promote as a director of  Alfred Lunn’s new travel company.  Benson was a keen skater and was gold medal standard in his technique. He also swam and was a keen general sportsman.  Only after a serious operation in 1912, and the onset of arthritis, did he have to give up his sporting interests.

In 1915, he took the lease of 25 Brompton Square, his final London home. It features in his books Lucia in London (1925) and Secret Lives (1932). After the War he was no longer considered fashionable as a writer of novels, and he had to change direction.  He began to write about his family in a series of autobiographies, Our Family Affairs (1920), Mother (1925), As We Were (1930) and Final Edition (1940). He also wrote many biographies and ghost stories. He is considered to be one of the great writers of the ghost story, following in the tradition of M.R.James.

It was during his years at Lamb House that he wrote his famous Mapp and Lucia novels, set in Rye, which he renamed Tilling, after the river Tillingham.  Lamb House appears as Mallards, and is the house of first Miss Mapp and then Lucia. From the Garden Room, which was bombed in 1940, both Mapp and then Lucia were able to watch the activities of their friends. In 1934 Benson became Mayor of Rye and served for three terms. Throughout the 1930’s, his arthritis worsened and he became more immobile. He was not a great socialite in Rye, and lived here quite quietly. He enjoyed reading, researching for  his biographies, playing the piano, and entertaining a small circle of friends.

Benson was taken ill at the end of 1939 and died in London on February 29th 1940, from cancer of the throat.

 E.F.BENSON AND RYE
by Allan Downend

 E.F.Benson first came to stay in Rye in 1900 as the guest of Henry James, a friend of his brother, A.C.Benson.   Rye, and particularly Lamb House,  made a profound impression upon him. He visited Rye again, and this time stayed with Lady Maud Warrender at Leasam, on the hill  behind Rye, where he met Edward Elgar and Rudyard Kipling amongst other famous people.

When Henry James died in 1916, an American woman leased the house but decided to winter on the Riviera, and let a friend of hers, George Plank, use the house.  He was a friend of Benson and the latter  spent many weekends at Lamb House with  George Plank, who was the famous illustrator who designed covers for Vogue and also illustrated Benson’s book The Freaks of Mayfair.

In 1917, another friend, the artist Robert Norton, took the full lease of Lamb House, and offered Benson the sub lease of all  but the summer months. From then on Lamb House became his country home. In 1919 he took over the whole lease and shared the house with his brother, Arthur, who was Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Arthur used the house during the vacations. Benson declined the Lamb House freehold after his brother’s death, because he had no direct descendants but continued to live there.

 Benson used the town of Rye in many of his novels and short stories, the most famous being his Tilling novels, Miss Mapp, Mapp and Lucia, Lucia’s Progress and Trouble for Lucia.  The other two books  in the series are Queen Lucia (set elsewhere) and Lucia in London (set at his London house).  In the  series, Rye appears as the town of Tilling and its geography  is identical in nearly all respects to Rye. The names of places are changed slightly,  but still reveal the connection to the original, for example, Mermaid Street becomes Porpoise Street;  Watchbell Street, Curfew Street; The Hope Anchor Hotel, The Trader’s Arms; and The George Hotel, The King’s Arms. 

His great interest in birds reveals itself in the names of places and people, such as Mallards  for Lamb House,  Starling Cottage for Robin Hill in Mermaid Street, Grebe for possibly Playden Cottage on the Military Road, and in the character Captain Puffin.  He used the houses of his friends in these books; Robin Hill was the home of his friend, the publisher Vincent Marrot and  The Other House on West Street was the home of the Jacomb-Hoods and became the Fish Shop and the Coach House attached, Quaint Irene’s Taormina.  Percy Jacomb-Hood was the illustrator of some of Benson’s books, and his wife, Reta, became Mayoress when Benson became Mayor of Rye in 1934, a position he held until 1937. Next to the Jacomb Hood’s House, Cobbles Cottage, became the Fruiterers.

Rye appears in E.F.Benson’s novel Pharisees and Publicans (1926) under its own name, and is also recognisable in the following novels and short stories:

   Mrs. Ames (1912), as Riseborough
   The Oakleyites (1915) as  Oakley-on-Sea
   Colin and Colin II, (1923 and 1925) as Rye but the house at the centre of the story , Stanier, is  Leasam.
   Visible and Invisible (1923) a collection of ghost stories, where ‘The Outcast’ has Rye as Tarleton  and
      ‘Machaon’ has Rye as Tilling
   Spook Stories (1928) where ‘Naboth’s Vineyard’ has Rye as Scarling
   More Spook Stories (1934) where ‘James Lamp’ has Rye as Trench.

There is no doubt that Rye was not only much loved by E.F.Benson, but that  it also acted as a major inspiration with regard to his writings. Although he claimed that the Tilling novels were light weight, it is because of them, and his ghost stories, that he is remembered to-day. As you walk round Lamb House and the town of Rye, you may hear echoes of his famous characters.