Rye Castle Museum

   Rye Castle Museum and St Mary’s Parish Church, Rye are delighted to announce that they were able to jointly secure at a recent auction, four St. Mary’s Ledgers from the 19th Century. The Ledgers were kept by the Dengate family including James, his widow Frances, and their son James Samuel, being Sextons at Rye during the period … read more

by John Burke        Rye historian and novelist and father of Jenny Hadfield, the present proprietor 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 … read more

  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 … read more

  from Edwardian Rye from contemporary photographs by Geoffrey S Bagley (Rye Museum Association 1974) This summary of  life in Rye 100 years ago is the Introduction to our former  Curator’s book on the subject; he wrote much else about Rye’s history besides. Edwardian Rye is one of the Museum’s  top selling publications and is available at both … read more

Researched  by ‘Rya’ (Kenneth Clark) and published  in Rye ‘s Own,  September 1999     Nights of Terror The commemoration of Guy Fawkes’ abortive attempt in 1605 to blow up the Parliament buildings with the King, Lords and Commons in them has persisted for so long that it deserves to rank among the historic features of the town, although the date … read more

In 1870 it was decided to roof the red brick exercise yard  attached to the north side of the Ypres Tower and add a chimney to form a soup kitchen for the distribution of soup and bread to the poor during severe winter weather.  Local archaeologists considered  the resulting structure  an eyesore and they formed … read more

Jean Floyd Queen Victoria reigned for 63 years:   1837-1901.  During that period there were seven censuses.   What follows is a decade by decade summary of what those censuses, together with contemporary reports and Rye histories tell us about Rye and its people. 1840s Children made up one-third of the population 6-10  persons in a household was normal Nearly … read more