Rye Castle Museum

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 on which it was first celebrated is not known with certainty. The methods and extent of the festivities to-day do not bear any comparison with the ‘glorious fifth’ of the latter half of the last century, when boats laden with lighted tar barrels were dragged through the narrow streets.

In fact, from the late 1840’s until the mid 1880’s the 5th of November celebrations were ‘a time of terror’ among numbers of the inhabitants.   The subsidence of terror is remarked on by  contemporary commentators. Here is an example:

 Time is said to work  and it would be strange if to such a night of disorder, there was to be no end. A change appears to have come o’er the scene, and there is little to report of the proceedings on the night of Tuesday last [November 5th, 1889]. Whilst the town has not filled up . . . to the extent of Hastings in its daring smuggling propensities, in which the law has set at defiance, it has the notoriety that, once a year, the roughs in hundreds have openly defied the powers that be and challenged them to stay their hand in their diabolical work of destroying all moveable inflammable property anywhere in the neighbour-hood.

The adventures of some who once joined in the reckless sport is, nevertheless, somewhat interesting, as they relate to the incident which gave them a name for daring among their fellows. These characters no more feared the officers of the law on that night, however strong they might be, than the famous ‘ Death and Glory Boys’  in  their military prowess cared about facing a foreign foe. The incident of  the  Gunpowder Plot, when Guy Fawkes and his confreres were so providentially discovered ere the work of anarchy had arrived at a successful issue, has been well preserved, but that, we are inclined to believe, was little thought of by them. In the removal of many, and the decrease of some, great changes have naturally been effected, and there are not a few who have of late seen the folly of such boisterious conduct, or, through advancing years are sobered down by the stern realities of life, for it must be remembered that it is among those more distinguished as ‘hobbledehoys’  that these games have been carried out.

The work of the evening generally commenced with a gorgeous street procession, in which were numbers arrayed in the most grotesque and ludicrous attire conceivable. Had matters stayed there, there would have been little to chronicle : but it was the after proceedings. . .  

We well remember the night when Superintendent Butcher was felled to the ground with a loaded bludgeon and taken away insensible (which blow, without doubt, shortened his life). On the same night the only police constable we then had (now Superintendent Bourne) was tripped up, and had to go home with a sprained ankle, so that for the rest of the night the town was at the mercy of these desperadoes. Disgraceful conduct was shown to the late Mr Payne by the mob. As he was anxious to save his boat, he boarded it, and kept watch. He was thrown over the side into the mud by the roughs, and badly used, and that cannot be eradicated from the memory of those who witnessed the occurance. Finding that it was impossible to remove the craft, it was burnt at the water’s edge.

Attempts at reform: Failed!

Several attempts have been made to organise, so that the stealing of boats, etc, should be dispensed with, and the celebrations carried out in an orderly manner.

In 1879 an organised Society was formed, and on the 5th there was a splended procession: but some refused to join, and consequently the ‘originals’ carried on the old game. About ten o’clock the two processions encountered each other in Cinque Ports Street, and the ‘originals’ being the stronger of the two parties, the tug upon which the boat of the others was being drawn was seized. For a time a melee seemed to be imminent, clubs being freely used. This was the night on which the famous-model of the polysphemic ship, invented by the Rev C.M.Ramus, and valued at £40, was stolen from a meadow near the Rectory in Iden, and carried triumphantly to Rye, where it was quickly destroyed. In 1880 a boat at the Fishmarket, serving the purpose as a hut, in which a man known as Punch Moore  resided, was destroyed, and  the man, resisting,  experienced some rough handling from the mob

Another man secured his boat by sinking it, to save it from the flames.  In this year  Mr J.C.Hoad a shipbuilder, was struck by the desperadoes because he remonstrated with them for taking his timber tug.  A blow rendered him insensible and gave him a scalp wound. Not until nearly five o’clock next morning was the town quieted.

In 1881, Mr Crowhurst’s boat and Mr MilIsom’s casks were taken; and in the following year, 1882, Mr Hayle’s pleasure boat removed to his back premises in the High Street, for saftey, was deliberately taken and burnt, in spite of all pleading to the contrary. The County Police at the Chemical Works, in 1884, will have cause to recollect that date, owing to the powerful attack made on that place by the lawless gang. That night was a memorable one. Several stolen barrels had that year been discovered and removed before the night, and the roughs were somewhat exasperated, and so they, with a determined spirit broke down a boat,  which formed a lodge at Messrs Smith’s Shipyard, and carried it off triumphantly. The Crusader’s boat [the steam tug's dingy] they next intended to have, but Superintendent Bourne and P.C. Hanley, with a plucky staff of specials, prevented it being taken, for which act the Superintendent sustained several violent blows and was rendered insensible, whilst Henley’s helmet was battered in. The next year the boat was actually taken and destroyed, and five suspected of taken part were brought before the Recorder, but dismissed.

Mr J.C.Vidler’s pleasure boat was taken from a lodge in Ferry Road. But as the Police would not allow the guilty ones to pass over the bridge, a fire party destroyed it, and it was thrown over the bridge into the Tillingham.

Calmer Nights

Since 1885  trouble has been on the decline, and nothing very serious has taken place. On Tuesday evening last, partially disguised, they marched through the streets, the old banners again being used, and several lighted tar barrels illuminated the scene. A number of extra police were on duty in place of special constables, as in former years, but no interferance was made by them although the yelling and hooting of the youths which formed the procession was very great, and it was easily to be seen that the demonstration was very weak as compared with former years. Only one boat was burned, and that, we understand, had been purchased.  It had been dragged from the Fishmarket, across the Salts, to Bridge Place, where it was lighted, and very quickly drawn through the streets, the party at  times running through the narrow throughfares at a dangerous pace. A little before midnight, a barrel, containing a quantity of tar was stolen after some violent but ineffectual resistance by the owner,  Mr Watts, from his premises in Church Square (and we hear prosecution is likely to follow); it was taken as far as the Post Office, where it allowed to burn out. There was an amount of horse play, rotten eggs being some plentiful, and banter with a certain of the PCs  whose conduct was certainly not to its credit,   Three members of the force who remained deserve praise for the cool way in which they carried out their duties. Shortly after midght Supt Tobutt asked that the hose of the Brigade who were on duty in case of emergency should be used to quench the remains of the fire in front of the Post Office, and after s trouble in obtaining water it was extinguisdthe and the doings of the Fifth were at an end.

Such high goings on have now  disappeared. To day, under the auspices of the  Bonfire Boys  the Fifth is so far as is humanly possible an orderly and well organised, full of  merriment but utterly devoid of its former terror.

======

Cliff Bloomfield contributed these supplemenary notes 

1. The tugs referred to, were used  to carry logs to and from the saw pits, consisted of a pair of large wooden wagon and a fulcrum also served as a draw bar.
2. I remember my Grandparents referring to the night when Rye was alight. In fact a gang entered the yard and set on fire a fishing smack named The Rye lying in a  berth. The site became the Winchelsea Yacht Centre.
3. The Chemical Works of those days refined products from coal that arrived via the Harbour branch line,  Tar and pitch had many uses, coating timber buildings, making  surfaces etc.
4. My grand mother used a simple little verse for skipping  :-

Old Punch Moore and two or three more,
Went down the river on the dunikin door,
The dunkin door began to crack
So old Punch M said we  better get back.

Punch Moore, as we discovered,  lived in a shack with an upturned boat for a roof at Fishmarket. This method of roofing a shed shelter was not uncommon.

by Kenneth Clark

This article is taken from Rye’s Own, December 2006. 

The Soup Kitchen is Open

Pauperism in Rye remained an unresolved social problem at the opening of the twentieth century. Social reform is this country was confined to filling the most glaring gaps in the existing social system. The bed-rock of social provision was to be found in the Poor Law, first enacted in the time of the Tudors, and re-enacted in 1834. Administered locally by Boards of Guardians and financed from the local rates, the Poor Law provided a minimum subsistence under conditions which were deliberately designed to deter all but the utterly desperate from applying for it.

 It is little wonder, therefore, that the poor feared the day when, through ill health, misfortune or old age, they would no longer be able to earn their living for, unless they had been extremely thrifty or possessed children who were in a position to help, the workhouse was the only place for them. Once in such a house, the inmates found themselves placed under the jurisdiction of a master and matron. Forced to wear the workhouse uniform, none could leave the premises except on special occasions. Entertainments and treats were provided from time to time by well meaning local men and women, but freedom and liberty–the twin concepts of a full and complete life–were denied. Many of the town’s leading men served on the Board and introduced many reforms,  but these were of necessity limited in scope as the rates would not have borne the cost.

 In 1982 Mr. Lord, one of the Guardians, attempted to persuade the Rye Board to allow well-behaved men and women, who had entered the house  through misfortune or no fault of their own, to wear ordinary dress when they were granted leave of absence instead of the workhouse garb, which he described   ‘as a badge of misfortune, or, possibly, disgrace’. The privilege was to be bestowed for obedience to the master or matron. Voices were raised against discriminating between the well-behaved and the others and the proposal was adopted  after much discussion– without the offending rider.

When a crippled man aged 26, who had been in the workhouse for six years, asked for a testimonial to Messrs. Day and Martin in order that he might obtain a box and brushes and earn an honest living as a boot-black, the Board readily granted his request. The world was still, as Disraeli had remarked, for the few– the very few.  Sometimes the proceedings were enlivened by a little humour. In support of an application for increased relief, a well-known Rye character stated that she was 609 years old!

Life outside the workhouse was far from easy for although prices were low, so too were wages. When unemployment or illness struck, there were no welfare services such as exist in the modern  state, to come to the rescue. However there was succour from those who believed they had a responsibility for the welfare of the less fortunate. An outstanding example is provided by John Symonds Vidler whose generosity knew no bounds. The following description of the re-opening of the soup kitchen in 1907 well illustrates the need and the way it was met in adverse times. 

On Saturday the Town Crier was busy visiting local districts, and announcing to the crowds that gathered at the tintinabulous call of his bell that tickets for soup and bread would be distributed to deserving causes at the Town Hall in the evening. At six o’clock sharp, on the evening in question, a large and representative party of the fishing and labour fraternity, who had been thrown out of employment and were otherwise afflicted by hard times, assembled at the Town Hall. The cases were heard by officials who made orders for the necessary distribution of bread and soup. No less than 122 tickets were given and it was decided that the soup kitchen, in Cinque Ports Street should be opened twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays during the cold weather. Accordingly, great preparations were made at the Soup Kitchen headquarters, which building, we believe, was formerly used as the Town Water Pumping Station, the pumping power of which was ‘generated’ by a couple of horses harnessed to mechanical contrivances.

The two large coppers, each capable of holding 70 gallons of soup, were cleansed, the fuel was got ready as also were the extensive fireplaces. For four solid hours on Monday a couple of muscular Ryers were kept continually on the go peeling potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips and onions. A large quantity of split peas  also to be used in the soup, was soaked in water for the greater part of 24 hours whilst the joints of meat and bones were cut up small.  All night and all morning until eight o’clock, when the kitchen was declared opened, did the two brawny impromptu cooks attend to the roaring and crackling fires and to the steaming cauldrons. Unceasingly did they manipulate the “stirrers” and spoons, some four feet in length.

At the opening time, and perhaps a little before, the soup was bubbling and gently steaming, and was declared by the connoisseurs to be “ready”. On the doors of the building being thrown open the savoury odour of soup permeated the neighbouring streets, from which came, scurrying and running, small boys and girls, carrying such handy receptacles as ewers, water cans, pots, basins, buckets, and other articles. . . .

To be continued . . . .

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 everyone had been born in Rye or within a few miles of it
• Few children went to school 
• Lighting was by candle
• Everyone used outdoor privies—usually shared by several households
• Rye had more than 40 inns

1850s

• Gas lights lit the town
•  ‘Salad days’ of Rye shipbuilding (to1855). Rye vessels regularly featured in Illustrated London News
• Three trains a day to London. Railway replacing stagecoaches, barges, hoys
• One quarter of the population needing poor relief; soup kitchen feeding 1220
• Streets named and houses numbered by William Holloway (1859)

1860s

• Disastrous weather 1859-60: gales, shipwrecks, floods
• Ruined crops brought depression but fortunes rising by 1864
• Three local papers printed in Rye
• Entertainments:  plays, revival meetings, freak shows, recital/ concert evenings . . .
• Average life span: 44 years (National 40)

1870s

• A School Board for Rye; many children now attending school
• Rye Literary Society flourishing but farming and trade depressed
• Rye Agricultural Hall (now Rye Mews) built for stock, produce and annual show
• Rye Fawkes celebrations ‘a time of terror’
• Rye had 6 free public pumps to supply water to 470 unconnected houses
• Soup kitchen added to Ypres Tower

1880s

• An exceptionally high tide caused extensive flooding and a lingering smell of dead worms (1882)
• Rye’s trade mostly by ships from other ports but new fleet of barges a success
• School attendance compulsory (5-12)
• Huge town celebration for Golden Jubilee
• Rye Regatta revived: gala day for town
• Corporation dealt with public health, highways, water supply, fire brigade, street lighting, allotments . . . .

1890s

• Rye Golf Club founded and Rye and Camber tram opened
• Shipbuilding, industries at low ebb…
• …but tourism compensating; artists, antiquarians, architects, photographers…
• Soup Kitchen provided 6,400 loaves and 7,040 quarts of soup to the needy
• 2000 ‘Robin breakfasts’ for children
•  470 households connected to water

1900 

• Rye still working 200 cargoes a year. 
• Coal and Dutch cheese coming in.  Corn and oak going out
• Commercial electricity not yet to Rye
• Cheap beer and many inns: drunkenness and lawlessness —> 10 inns closed 1901
• Cattle still driven through streets to slaughter houses behind High Street

Much more to come!