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

Rye has been involved in the defence of the coast and English Channel throughout its history. This has generally been in response to a particular event or crisis and it usually involved naval activities and ferrying soldiers to various theatres of war.

The town began to be seriously defended from the C12th onwards.   The tower now known as the Ypres Tower was built in the mid C13th. It was at this time that the English crown and the dukedom of Normandy–which had been one and the same–began to separate.

16th century

In 1542 Camber Castle began to be built by order of Henry VIII, and in 1541 it had already been arranged that it would be armed with the necessary artillery and a captain. Later, between 1557 and 1559, Rye bought guns and overhauled the town’s ordnance. In 1588 a Watch was appointed in Rye in order to forestall the Armada and again the town was well stocked with munitions. In 1657 foot soldiers were quartered in Rye. They were men of Colonel Robert Gibbons Regiment.

Wars with France

August 1779 saw the creation of a local armed force in response to the wars with France and Spain, and a member of the Lamb family received a commission and money from the Council to raise company for Rye.

The troops were billeted firstly at the Strand and later in a camp at the top of Rye Hill, where the Memorial Care Centre now stands.    The picture is a copy of a 1779 pen and ink sketch of the camp which housed  Commander General Stopes’ 13th Regiment.  This company was disbanded in 1783.

With the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars with France in October 1794, William Pitt, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, decided to strengthen the defenses along this coast. This included creating; the Cinque Ports Fencible Cavalry, which lasted until 1814; Rye’s First Volunteer Infantry Company 1794 – 1802; and the Troop of Gentlemen and Yeomanry Corps.

The first phase of the wars with France ended with the Peace of Amiens in 1802.   But the war with France started again in May 1803 and the era of the Napoleonic Wars began. By now Pitt had resigned as Prime Minister but was still the Lord Warden. He raised three Infantry Battalions and Rye was in the Third Battalion and became first, second and third of its ten companies. The Third Battalion Cinque Ports Volunteer Corps was re-formed in 1803 and lasted until 1806. A Rye Battery of Artillary was also raised by Pitt in 1804 and probably lasted until 1814. The Third Battalion Cinque Ports Volunteers did not like being disbanded in 1806 and within three months re-formed themselves and lasted until 1808.

There were two barracks on Rye Hill and two batteries, one in the Gungarden ( South East Battery ) and one on West Cliff orGreen  ( South West Battery ). Amongst the Regiments stationed at Rye were the 43rd Regiment of Foot and the East Kent Militia.

It was at this time that the Military Canal was constructed, linking Pett Level and Hythe, and the Martello Towers  built along the coast.

Defenses in Victorian Times

In 1859 there was another scare , this time from Napoleon III, although there was no real substance to it. A Volunteer Rye Corps was formed in May 1859 to be called the Rye District Company. This became a joint company with Tenterden in December 1859, but was disbanded in 1860.

Above - Sergeant Edward Batcheler, Cinque Ports Volunteers c1865

 In the following year the government reorganised the 35th (Cinque Ports) Regiment of Rifle Volunteers into two battalions and the Rye subdivision became the Third Hastings Company in the First Cinque Ports Administrative Battalion. This later became the Ninth Rifles and lasted until 1876.

The Fourth Cinque Ports (Hastings & Rye ) Volunteer Artillery were formed in 1861 and called themselves the Rye Marine Cinque Ports Volunteer Artillery and they lasted until 1877, yet they continued to meet in Hastings with only two Rye members until 1891. In 1885 E Company First Cinque Ports Rifle Volunteers ( Brookfield’s Greys ) was commissioned and some of these men served in the Boer War ( 1899 – 1902 ). In 1909 the existing companies were  re-organised as the Territorials and served in the First World War.

World War I

   In 1901 the Sussex Imperial Yeomanry was formed and a Troop was raised in Rye and district. It maintained very close connections with Rye until 1904 and some men saw service in the First World War. It then became the Surrey Yeomanry and was converted to the Field Artillery and served in the Second World War.

In early 1911 the Veteran Reserve was created, later to be known as the National Reserve. A Rye Company was established and forty men served in the First World War.

Old Drill Hall

In 1912 a Drill Hall and Armoury was opened near the Windmill. When war broke out in 1914, 300 had volunteered out of a population of 4,000; conscription was introduced in 1916. 

The upper floor of the Monastery was turned into a hospital in 1915.

On April 17th 1917, three bombs were dropped from a Zeppelin but little damage was done. 144 names are recorded on the Rye War Memorial of those that died in this war.

World War II

In 1940, during the Second World War,  a Local Defence Volunteers was formed and it lasted unitl 1945. It was part of the 22nd Sussex Home Guard. Pill boxes, tank traps, and artillery batteries were set up around Rye. During the war 88 bombs and 200 incendiaries were dropped. Many buildings were destroyed and enemy action drastically changed the face of Rye, especially around the Ypres Tower and the Strand.

For  related articles click on  Invasion Coast and Maritime History at right.

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