Rye Castle Museum

By Tarquin & Biddy Cole

This article not only tells about the pottery business in Rye but gives an insight into other aspects of the town’s history and the people who have lived and worked here

Until 2002 there was a gift shop called the The Merrythought near  the Church door at the top of Lion Street which had a relationship of some 75 years with Belle Vue Potteries.  There is still a gift shop on the corner, now called Forget-Me-Not,  but the pottery connection no longer exists.  

 Origins: The Whites

A characterful near-neighbour of The Merrythought was Ernest Apps, a greengrocer living a  few doors below in Lion Street.  He was born there in 1927, of even more charcterful parents.  According to Ernest,  Mr. & Mrs. Percy White were already in residence when he was born, but the year when the business was either purchased or founded by the Whites is as yet unknown. Searches in the annual publication, Deacon’s Alamanac, Directory and Yearbook for Rye, do not produce any references,  even under 72, Church Square,  that can be recognised. Ve Webb, the last owner of the gift shop, whose family also owned Simon the Pieman, next door but one, confirmed that her mother believd that the Merrythought was trading in the 1920′s, with the Whites as owners. No Rye Pottery sales records survive for Edith Mitchell’s tenure of the Pottery on her own (1920 -1930), before she sold it to Geroge Ellis and his daughter, Ella Mills, but it may be presumed that this gift shop was already being supplied.

The very first entry in the Belle Vue account books for ‘P. White Esq., Church Square’ was July 6th 1931. ‘To Goods £3.3s.4d’. This was Invoice No. 4 on page 3, so there were at least three previous invoices, but page 1& 2 are missing and invoice numbers were not always used, so there may have been more. It is not until May 1935 that the ledger is actually marked ‘P. White, Merrythought’. Ella Mills bequeathed both ledger and invoice books for the period 1931-1940 to Wally & Jack Cole, but unfortunately these are now incomplete. The Ella Mills Invoice Book runs from June 9th 1936 to July 20th.1940 and the ledger from 1931 to July 8th 1940. This takes one only to page 20; the remainder of the book was carried on by the post war Pottery, first by Wally tidily and then by others in an increasingly scruffy and disjointed way — a complete contrast to the neat and exact records kept by Ella!

Percy White’s wife ran the gift shop, whilst he managed the antiques business further down the street called Delves & Son opposite The George Hotel, which he gradually upgraded from a ‘boot and shoe warehouse, via antique furniture emporium and old china store’ in 1919 to ‘Dealer in Antiques’ in 1929 and perhaps even to something more discerning! The Belle Vue Pottery had few account customers, but the Merrythought was one of them, taking 25% of the invoiced production. Hopware, lustre and green glazed miniatures as well as the Sussex Pig, were all  items invoiced to the shop. This has to have been an important part of the gift shop’s turnover, so it is no wonder that Percy White took such trouble to have the business re-opened after the war.

What is strange is that, having taken so much trouble to get Rye Pottery restarted, the Whites then sold their business in June 1950 to a Mrs Jarvis, who lived with a lady companion in Winchelsea. These ladies seem to have been a source of much relished local gossip. Mrs Jarvis sold it again in 1951 to a spinster called Olive Holmes, a quiet and precise lady, who was able to live neatly in the extremely tiny flat above the shop.

The Coles

Percy White did not include any of the old stock of Sussex pigs, lustre or hopware in the sale, preferring to salt this safely away; he then sold his other business, Delves Antiques, a year or two later. Percy White with Stuart Prebble,  a local estate agent,- were the moving forces in establishing a Rotary Club in Rye and they recruited Wally Cole to be the Founding Secretary; Jack Cole was a Rotarian in Beckenham, and he had advised Wally that it would be good for the Pottery for him to do so. Wally obtained a lot of enjoyment from Rotary over the years. The newly renamed Rye Pottery did very well out of the  relationship with The Merrythought under Olive Holmes, whose account opens Feb.21st. 1950, taking over the last few invoices of the Whites. She in turn retired, possibly due to deteriorating health, and the account was closed on 16th January 1956. The Merrythought had been offered to Rye Pottery for £3000 by Miss Holmes in the latter half of the 1950s. The Coles, previously leaseholders of the Ferry Road premises, had only just purchased the freehold of Belle Vue House and Pottery from Rye Borough Council and so were unable to take up this offer, although they would  dearly have liked to secure the retail mark up on the large percentage of their production sold by  The Merrythought. A postcard of the period shows the whole of the main shop window filled with Rye Pottery.

Competition

The strong relationship was tested in a way that was totally unexpected, when a request to become a stockist was received from a newly arrived family who started a gift shop called Artina, half a dozen shops further down Lion Street. The change of ownership at The Merrythought was probably seen as an opportunity to obtain the main agency for Rye Pottery within the town. The Pottery replied that unfortunately, they would be unable to supply them, as it would affect the sales at the existing Merrythought outlet so close by: a normal trade practice in fact, and it was thought important not to jeopardise a successful relationship– whoever the new owners might be.

The response was totally unexpected — a threat to start their own pottery here in Rye, which in due course they did, taking one of the most talented ex-apprentices, David Sharp, newly returned to the Pottery from National Service and restive, as a partner to help get it going. This added to the confusion of identity, which was probably intentional as the original name chosen for this new venture was Rye Art Pottery – a name used by the Mitchells at BelleVue in the early years of the century – until a solicitor’s letters caused a change of name. 

This is not to imply that The Merrythought was the only outlet within the town, but it was the principal outlet. There was normally at least one other in the main High Street — Deacons initially, who in the early years of the 20th century advertised that they ‘sold the famous Sussex Rustic Ware’; followed by Adams or Gouldens in the 50’s & 60’s, and latterly Penny Royal during the Denny family’s ownership. Sometimes there were several, but it was always rather a problem to the Pottery and caused some rancour amongst the contenders. It was Pottery policy to try and ensure that there was never just a monopoly outlet within the town.

The Dixons

 The new Merrythought owners were John and Margaret Dixon, who moved from Cambridge, where Margaret had worked for, and was highly regarded by, Joshua Taylor, a small departmental store, where the Managing Director, Kenneth Taylor, was both a Rye Pottery stockist and a collector of Wally’s own studio pots. John Dixon had family connections with Hastings, so would have known Rye from his youth. He was delicate, often not well and had been a choral scholar at Kings College, so both Dixons already knew all about Rye and Rye Pottery. To begin with they lived in the tiny flat above the shop, but as they settled and prospered they bought a cottage in Northiam, commuted to work and used the flat as a stockroom.

The use of the flat as a stockroom was an enormous bonus for Rye Pottery. The Merrythought had always had a problem with Rye Pottery stock, which was available in the winter, but unsaleable, and in short supply in the summer when visitors appeared again and trade was brisk. David Morris, who became manager at Rye Pottery in the early 1960s, persuaded the Dixons that it would be worthwhile to build up regular stocks in the winter to cover this loss of profitability. To encourage this he arranged to deliver their stock, something that the older generation had thought totally unnecessary. Sometimes there was so much stock there that it would have been almost impossible for even a mouse to spend the night in the flat.!

This was of course a great benefit to the Pottery, who always had a terrible period between Christmas and early summer, when they were only making for stock, trusting that orders would remove the stockpile. This produced a cash crisis in the Spring every single year. When Wally and Eileen told John and Margaret Dixon that they would probably have to close in the 1970s throughout the dreadful strike and powercut-ridden years, which exacerbated the annual problems, the Dixons paid for unmade stock in advance to keep the pottery solvent.

Somehow, though, those in Ferry Road grudged The Merrythought the retail profit margin; an attitude that they had managed to communicate to all the pottery offshoots started by ex-employees. It seemed to the potters that all that happened after all the graft and sweat of manufacture was for the retailer to just put it on their shelves and double their money. Somehow the expense and expertise of running a retail shop was lost on them all. No allowance was ever made for capital tied up in prime retail positions, rents, wages, stock purchases and lines that didn’t sell, let alone a profit margin! The concession that the Pottery made for ‘this enormous favour’ was to produce lines that were exclusive to The Merrythought. In particular, bulk ‘Studio’ was regularly made in either bowl or vase mixed shapes, priced per dozen for a given size. These were a very mixed bag, some lovely and others very mundane, but they sold very well, so fulfilling their purpose. There were also lines made exclusively for them, such as the rather dull floral tableware pattern in Rye Yellow and Blue Green.

Rye Pottery also produced special displays to fill the window from time to time with pieces not made for anyone else. An example of this was a display of one-off signed pieces by Wally and Tarquin, and June Woolley for the Queen’s Visit to Rye in 1966.

The junior Coles stopped these Studio lines as soon as they took over, because the standard was so uneven and uncontrollable. They were not as strapped for cash as the parents at that time, because Ceramic Consultants/ Rye Tiles had survived the appalling period in the 1970s more successfully due largely to the winning of a Design Award in 1974, with all the resultant publicity and orders. There is no doubt that without John and Margaret Dixon’s support, Rye Pottery would have ceased to exist before Biddy and Tarquin finally took over from the exhausted Wally and Eileen on Wally’s 65th birthday on 2lst January 1978.

The next Coles generation and the Barnes

Almost as the changeover from senior to junior Coles took place, the Dixons decided to retire and sold the business in the Spring of 1978. The Dixons moved to Chichester, where John became a guide in the cathedral and worked part time in a solicitor’s office. This was a severe blow to the Pottery, because that first winter the new Merrythought owners no longer wanted to carry this extra stock, so the Coles had lost the cushion of paid stock orders to fund the wages, let alone afford the capital to introduce some new badly needed designs to the existing ranges.

 The new owners were Beryl and Roy Barnes, for whom it was the intermediate stage between retirement and old age. Roy had been Chief Fire Officer for Essex and was an expert in the control of oil fires. From time to time he was still called away to assist with difficult flues. Probably their interest in dinghy sailing had drawn them to Rye. The remarkably young age of such retirements with a good index-linked pension meant that they were free of the sort of financial worries that beset many or us, and certainly those at the Pottery! Because of the incomprehension of the situation in Ferry Road it was never a comfortable relationship.  The Barnes put a lot of energy into developing the shop and searched amongst the items made at Rye Pottery for items that would produce new profit centres. Roy talked a lot about ‘Marketing’ and ‘Product’ and anything further from the rather arty and scruffy Rye Pottery outfit can hardly be imagined!

An example of this new approach to ‘merchandising’ was when The Merrythought started to market House Plaques, which Roy knew several of the potteries in Rye made, as well as Rye Pottery. A serious effort was made to try and rationalize sizes, designs, colours and delivery times to take out as many of the complications as possible, and they took a lot of orders for plaques. Friction soon developed when orders would be taken, perhaps at the weekend, when the Pottery was closed and things could not be checked, for difficult subjects and designs, or wildly over optimistic delivery dates were quoted. Roy was quite sure that the Pottery was being inefficient, which it probably was, but also difficult and obstructive, which it wasn’t. ‘Marketing’ in this context was a joke. When the artist and head paintress June Woolley, who painted all the plaques, was off work for six months with a back operation, meaning no plaques were made, Roy Barnes was furious as The Merrythought had to stop selling house plaques. Unfortunately Beryl Barnes developed cancer and died after a relatively short illness. Roy carried on for a while, but his heart wasn’t in it; perhaps the shop had been something that his wife had wanted to do rather than him ?

The Webbs

Roy  sold it to Ve and Mike Webb, who had run The Simon the Pieman cafe two doors away. It too, was a halfway stage to retirement for them; a gift shop being much less demanding than anything connected with serving food! Ve ran the shop with the help of Mrs Beatrice Bishop, a French lady who had worked there part time and as cover for days off since the early Dixon years. Mike Webb devoted his energies to managing their land at Icklesham. They had been an occasional Pottery customer previously, ordering honey-glazed ginger jars with Simon the Pieman in black lettering on the lid, presumably full of the  fudge for which the cafe had been famous for many years. They were long term enthusiasts of Rye Pottery, both the pre- and post-war output. This was probably the most easy and relaxed relationship with the Pottery since the departure of Olive Holmes. The Merrythought was no longer the dominant customer and the figures, mostly The Canterbury Tales,  now only filled the side window. Ve Webb ran the business for almost fifteen years before it was sold. The years passed without any serious stresses in the relationship and one was surprised that they had been there so long.

Rye Pottery missed the passing of this little outlet with a big sales punch, but it came as no surprise and its demise was no longer fatal for survival. The rather charming Rye Pottery name plaque with a jester has since been removed and all that is now left at the premises of 72 Church Square is a small wrought iron sign which used to read Rye Pottery but now with the word pottery blacked out, leaving a totally meaningless reference to any passer by.

  Rye’s Shipbuilding Industry

Rise to Importance

The shipbuilding industry in Rye and the estuary of the River Rother, together with the manifold trades required to meet maritime requirements, has for centuries undergone phases of boom and depression. Its varying fortunes have been brought about or accentuated by physical changes in the Harbour, by wars, by technological developments and by trends in the national economy.

In the Middle Ages two factors were immensely favourable to shipbuilding in the Rother estuary, neither of which can be said to obtain today. The first was the ready supply of timber from the forest of Andredsweald and the second was the navigability of the rivers Rother, Brede and Tillingham.

There is firm evidence of shipbuilding in Rye in the form of a royal order of 1223 which forbade the export of timber because the King (Henry III) was proposing to build ships and galleys. Eight years later Winchelsea (i.e. the old port before being evacuated) was ordered to send a carpenter for the King’s ship at Portsmouth. Between 1237 and 1243 the King’s galleys were lying at Rye and Winchelsea and in the last year seven were laid up in Rye. By this time Rye and Winchelsea had royal dockyards and storehouses which were essential both to meeting the considerable fishing requirements of the royal household and also for supporting overseas trading which extended to the Spanish coast.

Repairs to the King’s galleys were carried out at Rye in 1252 and again in 1253. In 1294, following a typical engagement in the Channel with the French, general preparations for the defence of the English coast were made known and the King (Edward I) ordered two galleys of 120 oars to be built at the new town of Winchelsea. This was only six years after old Winchelsea had been completely evacuated so little time had been lost in re-establishing the reputation of Winchelsea shipwrights. Out of 10 ports including London only Winchelsea and Bristol were given orders for more than one galley.

When the Hundred Years War with France started in 1337, Rye was building at least four ships which were to form an important part of the Cinque Ports Fleet. They were La Michael’(244 tons), La Nicholas (120 tons) La Palmere (60 tons) and La Edmond (60 tons). These square rigged ships with stern-mounted rudders and forecastles and after castles at bow and stern are well depicted on the seals of the Cinque Ports. The La Michael was the largest English vessel to take part in the battle of Sluys near Blanckenberg in 1340, during which bowmen firing from the high decks were able to kill hundreds of the enemy before fighting between the boarding parties even began.

Further up the Rother shipbuilding was taking place at Smallhythe which served as the port for Tenterden. In 1420 under the auspices of the King (Henry V), a 120 ton ballinger (a clinker-built two-masted ship) was built at Smallhythe by William Catton who had the title of ‘Keeper of the King’s Ships’. Catton is also accredited with the building at Winchelsea of the 1000 ton Jesus which was the second largest ship in Henry V’s fleet.

Decline in Fortunes

15th Cenutry Cog

By the middle of the 15th. century there were unmistakable signs that the natural advantages which Rye and Winchelsea shipbuilders derived from the forested hinterland and the navigable rivers flowing down from Sedlescombe (on the Brede) and Bodiam (on the Rother) were diminishing. The iron furnaces of the Weald using water power for smelting had been devouring trees so rapidly that timber for shipbuilding was becoming relatively scarce. Rather late in the day there was legislation (in 1558) prohibiting the use of timber in the furnaces. At the same time geo-physical changes were taking place in the Rother estuary which spelt difficulty and even disaster for some shipbuilders.

The sea, having overwhelmed old Winchelsea at the end of the 13th. century, now proceeded to build up a bar in the new port, causing the River Brede to become increasingly narrow and shallow, and enabling acres of land formerly part of the. tidal lagoon to be ’inned’, i.e. reclaimed for agriculture. In consequence, well before the end of the 15th century, Winchelsea’s shipbuilding industry had ceased to exist. If there were expectations that Rye shipbuilding would benefit from the demise of Winchelsea such hopes were not fulfilled. Even for the purposes of the Agincourt campaign in 1415, the King (Henry V) had to supplement his fleet by hiring transports from Holland and Zealand.

The practice of ’inning’ which had brought about the closure of the Port of Winchelsea was also affecting navigation in the upper and middle reaches of the Rivers Rother and Tillingham. The consequential adverse effects on shipping interests were further aggravated by the fitting of merchant ships with guns above the bulwark rail. Such ships had to be deep draught to maintain stability and were therefore quite unsuited to the shoals and shallows of Rye Harbour. Nor could it have been easy for Rye shipbuilders to change from clinker planking construction to carvel as became necessary when water-tight gunports had to be cut close to the water line. Men of war now began to be differentiated from merchantmen and with the reign of Henry VIII the era of impressment of ships came.

Taking into account the cumulative effects of siltation through inning, the diminution of local timber resources, the evolution of deep draught men of war and recent appalling outbreaks of the plague, it is not surprising that the response of Rye to Queen Elizabeth’s urgent request for ships to fight the Spanish Armada in 1588 was meagre. In the event the only contribution made by Rye was a 50 tonner supply ship which was hired and fitted out with the assistance of Tenterden.

Under the Stuart kings and well into the 18th century orders for new ships from Rye were rare but the shipyards would have been occupied servicing the numerous merchantmen colliers and fishing boats which continued to use the port. A cross-channel passenger service to Dieppe was running in the 17th century and there were river barges on which the famous gun foundries near Battle, Robertsbridge and Seddlescombe depended for the carriage of their heavy cargoes down to Rye for export. Even in 1700, except for the roadway leading northwards from the Landgate, Rye was still an island relying largely on water transport. In the absence of bridges, three ferries owned by the Rye Corporation had to be maintained to save travellers undergoing circuitous journeys on bad roads.

While the Industrial Revolution was gaining momentum in the latter part of the 18th century in the Midlands and North, the Port of Rye was being held back first by the disastrous attempt to create the New Harbour mouth at Winchelsea Beach and later by the serious threat of an invasion by Napoleon..

An exceptional event was the launching in 1787 of the Salisbury, a 200 ton cutter which was the only sizeable ship to make the passage out of Rye through the shortlived new outlet to the sea. Unfortunately little seems to have come to light about the builders of the Salisbury or other shipyards at this difficult time. Nor is it known whether any of the rafts for the floating batteries manned by the Sea Fencibles were built at Rye before being superseded by the Martello Towers.  

Prosperity Returns

By the time the threat from Napoleon had finally lifted, the Industrial Revolution was beginning to have a dramatic impact on shipbuilding along the South and East coasts. After centuries of square-riggers and the battleworthy ‘wooden walls’ of the Royal Navy fundamental changes in ship design were taking place. The requirements of commerce boosted by the development of trade with North America were increasingly for fast sailing vessels which could be sailed close to the wind with the benefit of fore-and-aft rigging.

Prominent amongst the early Rye shipbuilders in the new era was the firm of Harvey and Staffell whose yard was situated below the Green Steps at the end of Watchbell Street and well known for its sloops, cutters and schooners. By mid 19th. century the demand for merchant ships had created a boom of which Rye was taking full advantage.   In the wake of Havey and Staffell came the brothers Henry and James Hoad. They were the first of several generations of a family which achieved widespread fame both as shipbuilders and shipowners.

By mid-century other builders like Hessel and Holmes had won reputations for the design, craftsmanship and sailing qualities of their ships, several of which were owned and traded on their own behalf.   One such ship was the clipper schooner Marian Zagury built for the fruit trade.  The Illustrated London News credited Hessel and Holmes with having built the handsomest vessel ever built in the Port of Rye.  

 Later came the firms of G & T Smith (which succeeded J C Hoad and became celebrated for ketch barges), the Rother Iron Works (which built steam ships in iron and wood near the mouth of Rock Channel), W E Clark (which built smacks and river barges off the Winchelsea Road) and H J Phillips whose clinker-built fishing boats made in Rock Channel are to be seen today all along the Sussex coast.

 A sketch map prepared by researchers for the Rye Museum Association shows that these yards and their sail lofts were all situated near or between the Strand Quay and the confluence of Rock Channel with the River Rother.

 The Rye Museum Association has collected much detailed information about the ownership and output of the 19th. century shipyards. Amongst the very large numbers of ships launched in this active period the following are only a few examples:-

Keeping Afloat in Changing Times

It might have been difficult for shipping interests to realize that the Industrial Revolution was a two-faced friend. Before the end of the century the arrival of the railway and later the internal combustion engine started to darken the outlook but there were still some bright intervals.

In 1855 each of three Rye shipyards was given an order for a £7000 mortar boat destined for the Crimea and all three were launched between February and March 1856. Not long afterwards, the shipyards started to receive contracts for the building of lighters which for the next 50 years were needed to carry caissons made from Rye Harbour shingle to build the new outer arms of Dover Harbour.

Between 1882 and 1890 there was a decline in the number and tonnage of vessels entering the Port attributable to the partial blockage of the harbour mouth which in turn had created a crisis in the Harbour finances. It was therefore an act of faith in the future that induced John Symonds Vidler (Chairman of the Harbour Commission) and a number of friends to pay for a small fleet of ketch- rigged barges to keep the Rye-based coasting trade alive. Each of five ships ordered was built at the yard of G. and T. Smith in Rock Channel and the enterprise proved commercially successful. Some ships had up to 40 shareholders but nobody who retained his shares until the outbreak of war in 1914 suffered any loss.

During the 1914-1918 war shipbuilding in Rye ceased with the exception of two steam drifters built by G. and T. Smith. The same yard was chosen in the 1939-1945 war first for making wooden pontoons to enable magnetic mines to be exploded at a distance and later for building eight 75 foot minesweepers, two of which sailed to Singapore.

It was not until the dogs of war had been brought under control in 1946 that any revival of traditional shipyard activity could be contemplated. Remarkably enough, one firm — that of H J Phillips, which started business in 1913 at Rock Channel House — managed to survive the 1930s world slump as well as two world wars and was ready to resume its peacetime role of building and repairing boats for fishing, commerce and recreation. Under the management of Derek Phillips, son of Henry Phillips and grandson of H.J. Phillips this yard continued to thrive.  [Ed. note: It is now gone too] The continuing problem of the Harbour mouth, the poor quality of berthing facilities and a Harbour management whose dominant priority was land drainage were not factors to encourage new shipbuilders and shipwrights. Defying these disadvantages several small boatyards and chandlers, in addition to Phillips, established themselves in the Rock Channel area to take advantage of the unprecedented post- war growth in amateur sailing.

Three Brothers

The largest of the pleasure boats used by amateur sailors was The Three Brothers which was originally a fishing smack built in 1896 by G & T Smith but later converted to a cruising yacht.

 The popularity of boating and sailing for pleasure in the second half of the 20th. century contributed to the bulk of the Harbour’s revenue and provided a variety of maintenance and service work for never less than four small yards. H.J. Phillips, the doyen of the builders,  continued (albeit infrequently in recent years) to launch small fishing vessels built in wood using time-honoured methods.

Other yards have endeavoured to take advantage of the plastics revolution but competition from large-scale producers of fibre glass yachts and dinghies in the Solent area  precluded a steady flow of orders. One firm, Lochin Marine at the mouth of Rock Channel, successfully built lifeboats for the R.N.L.I. before being taken over for other non-maritime purposes.

The owners of the small Rye shipyards still operatin in 2000   had to adapt themselves to developments in electronics and technology which have transformed the ancient arts of ship design and navigation. They survived so long only because they were versatile, skilled and dedicated to their calling.

John Collard 1998

by Frank Palmer

The Borough Arms and the Ship Inn circa 1900

Of the earliest Inns and Alehouses little or nothing is known and all that exists are a few early cellars beneath later buildings. What we do know is that by the sixteenth century, the Inn and Alehouse was a significant part of the Rye scene.

As an important port of embarkation the town was always busy with travellers. Merchants and the military were crossing to and from France and all required sustenance and accommodation whilst awaiting the tide.  For example, Lord D’acre stayed at Le Crowne (at the corner of West Street and High Street) on the way to meet Henry VIII at Calais in 1520. In 1574 some twenty six Inns and Alehouses could be found with ninety four beds for strangers.  

The Tower Inn circa 1890

The occupation of licensed ale housekeepers was a privileged one and  found among the more affluent members of Society, often the town’s Jurats. One of these was Richard Pedyel, owner of the Mermaid, who died in 1536.

Yet earlier at the Cinque Ports Brodhull (the name for the meetings of the Cinque Ports Confederation) held at Romney in 1465, it is recorded that no Mayors or Bailiff sha1l retail bread or ale during his term of office. Likewise breweries, of which there were several, were expensive to set up and, therefore, the preserve of the more wealthy.       

The Red Lion cirfca 1860

At times Alehouses could be of considerable concern to the town authorities, because they provided shelter to vagrants and other suspicious persons, including ‘harlotts, hores and comon women’ (sic). Various Acts gave powers to Justices to deal with these, and an Act of 1495 gave powers to suppress Alehouses. Later, an Act of 1552 gave authority to the Magistrates to licence and suppress such premises.            

  In 1581 twelve ‘common dronkards’, were banned from every tippling house in Rye. At this time some of the Inns and Alehouses were:

The Mermaid
The Red Lion  (located  where the Further Education Centre now stands but burnt down in 1872)
The George and The Swan – both at this time in the Butchery (now Market Street)
The Three Kings in Middle Street (now Mermaid Street)
The Blew Anchor (later The London Trader and now The Borough Arms, at the Strand)
Whyte Vyne (in Longer Street now the High Street)

There were many others but the principle inns were the Mermaid, the Red Lion and the George.  These were often used by the Corporation for celebratory dinners. 

The George circa 1890

 However, the Mermaid had closed by the mid eighteenth century. Louis Jennings, visiting Rye in the 1870’s wrote,

The Mermaid — still I looked about for the Mermaid Inn, I roamed up and down Mermaid Street, over rough cobble stones, loathe to give up the search. . . . ‘ . . . at the helm A seeming mermaid steers’ .                                                             

At last I met an ancient man, who looked as if with a little effort of memory he might recall the Mermaid, or perhaps be the merman who married her.  ‘Ah Sir ‘, said he, with a sigh, ‘the Inn has long since closed. How curious you should ask for it. Gone ever so long ago, Sir’.

Throughout the centuries there were always some unlicensed presmises trading illicitly and it was the duty of the constables or Sargeant at Mace to bring the offenders before the Courts.   Fines and license fees brought in necessary income, so, despite pressure from the Privy Council in London to reduce the numbers of Alehouses, the Town Council tended to impose fines that were not too punitive and tried to persuade offenders to obtain a license.

 The brewers also had an interest in supplying as many outlets as possible. It is perhaps interesting to note that in 1609 four brewers were fined for supplying beer to unlicensed tippling houses;  two of these brewers were town Magistrates.

A glance at the Passage Book of the Port of Rye, shows that in the year 1635 many important persons sailed from Rye to the continent including merchants from London, Plymouth, Norwich, Hull, Bristol, Exeter and Barnstaple, as well as Scotland and Ireland. Some forty Inns and Alehouses offered their services in the town. However, at times this proved to be a mixed blessing.

The Kings Arms and the Pipemakers Arms circa 1890

 A  report to the Council of State in 1651 stated ‘the causes of injury to the trade of the ancient town, the multiplication of strangers and the superabundance of beer houses are alleged as the chief impediments to the prosperity of the market’.

Early in the eighteenth century we find; the Two Brewers (now the Queen’s Head) the Ship without Landgate (no longer in existence) and the Dolphin, Gungarden (pulled down in 1837) for the enlargement of the Rye Union Workhouse. 

However, in general the number of inns and alehouses was falling. The billeting of troops in the town was at times a source of difficulty. Many Acts of Parliament were passed over the years that attempted to control the problems of excessive drinking. This had an effect on the number of inns and alehouses in the town.

In 1830 another statute was passed, popularly known as the Duke of Wellington’s Beerhouse Act. This Act enabled any householder assessed to the poor rate, on payment of two guineas a year, to obtain an excise licence to retail beer from his own dwelling either on or off the premises. This was an attempt to reduce the abnormal amount of spirit drinking, but resulted in a considerable increase in the number of alehouses. 

The Jolly Sailor circa 1870

At the beginning of the twentieth century a number of inns were closed down because the police opposed the licence.

Those affected by this were; the Foresters Arms and the Swan, both in the Mint, the Jolly Sailor in Church Square, the King’s Arms in Cinque Ports Street, the London Stout House (formerly Sawyers Arms) in Ferry Road, the Borough Arms in the Strand, the Tower Inn in Landgate and the Oak in the High Street, amongst others.

Sources 

Records of Rye Corporation, 1962
Tudor Rye, Mayhew 1987
A New History of Rye, Vidler, 1934
The English Public House, Monckton, 1969
Sussex Archaeological Society Collections.

by Jo Kirkham, based on a talk given to Rye Local History Group by Mr Don Bentley in 2004. 

Freight Express Seacon

Don Bentley moved to Rye in 1972 and established Freight-Express Seacon , based first at the Custom House at 7  High Street, Rye, in 1974. The firm later moved to Market Street, in what was once Hinds drapery store, on the corner with Lion Street. 

The firm has two principal functions:  about 25% of their work involves acting as agents for the owners of  ships coming into Rye,  while the main business is ship broking, i.e. matching owners of ships with owners of cargoes. The  firm specialises in chartering ‘dry bulk ‘ cargoes as opposed to tanker brokers, or passenger brokers  or  broking on the future’s market.

Why Rye?   

In the 1960′s there were a series of industrial problems in the large British ports such as London, Liverpool and Southampton, with the National Dock Labour Scheme. A strike culture developed. Smaller ports such as Rye then became more attractive to merchants and shipowners as they had non-unionised labour, no ‘them and us’ culture and were more flexible.

 J. Alsford of Rye imported all their timber through the Surrey Docks on the River Thames, but when the Docks became a hot bed of dispute, they decided to do their own thing. They bought land and constructed a Wharf at Rye Harbour in 1967/8. Another company, ‘Ryecon’, frustrated by  the delays at Isleworth, did the same in 1973 and brought the six small coasters which they owned down to Rye to be based at Alsford’s Wharf. They had a regular trade with St Valery sur Somme.

A problem then occurred when Margaret Thatcher’s government deregulated the major docks, and the smaller wharves, like Rye, then became less attractive: they had to compete on the same basis as the big docks.   A further problem was that commercial traffic to Strand Quay became limited. Ships could only get in on Spring tides and they were limited to 120 feet long, 9 feet draught and 400 tons. Ships also got larger and the smaller ones disappeared because they were uneconomic. In 1972, ony one timber ship came in to the Strand for Hind’s timber yard.

Survival in Difficult Circumstances

 However,  Rye survived. thanks to the Wharf which had been built at Rye Harbour. Alsford’s Wharf could take ships of 220 feet long, 13 1/2 feet draught and up to 2,000 tons. Another reason for small ports like Rye to flourish was the Dock Strike of 1972.  Rye  was in the limelight because the pickets came down to the town, but Rye continued to work throughout.

The Miner’s Strike also helped. The major ports and unions supported the miners, but some small ports like Brightlingsea  made a fortune handling coal imports. Rye only had one coal ship.  Arthur Reynolds, another London broker, who had come down to Rye and begun Rye Shipping  in 1969, arranged for this ship, the Dutch ship Gasselte to bring 200 tons of coal to Strand Quay.  Don Bentley joined Rye Shipping  in 1972 for one year, but then formed his own Company.

Alsford built the Wharf primarily for the timber trade and had about 12 ships a year. Others approached the firm to use the facilities and there was a steady increase in other trades, such as volcanic aggregate, talcum powder, fish meal, cat litter etc.

The first export of grain that Seacon was involved in from Rye was in January 1978, when 600 tons of English barley went out. This trade grew so that exports increased to 40,000 tons in one year, organised by a Farmer’s Cooperative,  S.E.Grain -which sadly, was eventually wound up.  Since the Wharf re-opened, the majority of the cargoes are dry stone aggregates from North Wales (Llandulas), Cornwall (Falmouth), Brittany and Boulogne.

There was a down turn in trade during the 1980′s and early 1990′s and Alsford’s went into liquidation. It closed down for a couple of years until Rastrum’s reopened it and trade is now growing.  Another Wharf,  for ARC Amey Roadstone Co., was built further up the river. This firm had two special sea dredgers built, which were ideal for Rye. Sadly a down turn in trade meant that the firm switched to dry stone imports, but this also declined and the equipment has now been removed.

A Unique Harbour Today

Rye Harbour is a unique commercial harbour as it is run by the Environment Agency, a Government body. In 1972 the harbour was run by the Kent River Authority, which had two reorganisations  before the Southern Water Authority replaced it. This too was reorganised three times before it was privatised and then Rye was placed under the National Rivers Authority, which also had two internal reorganisations. The Government then set up the Environment Agency and that is who manages Rye Harbour now.

Pilotage used to be run by Trinity House. The Government then changed the responsibilty to the ‘Competent Harbour Authority’, i.e. the Environment Agency. The Harbour Master, his Deputy and one independent pilot  act as pilots in Rye.

The Harbour used to be monitored by the Port of Rye Users’ Committee, which was later made an official body, consisting of councillors, representatives of the boat owners, and fishing and commercial interests etc, and by the late 1970s,  called the Harbour of Rye Advisory Committee.

Broking Business 

Seacon  celebrated its 30th Anniversary in business on 1st January 2004. When it began on 1st January 1974, it was in the middle of the Miner’s Strike and everyone had days without power and candles were bought from Dennis,  the ironmonger on the High Street !

Four staff now work on the dry cargo side and many thousand  contracts of freight transport have been completed over the years.  Often foreign customers like to use a British broker e.g., a Thai customer wanted to send steel from the Baltic to China and Rye brokered it.   It is now even easier to run the Company from Rye using the Internet and e-mail, (it used to be telephone, cables and Telex), and the firm deals with moving all kinds of things from potatoes to fibre optics.

Seacon were involved when the Thekia,  loaded with a cargo of fertiliser, hit the western arm of the Harbour wall and became impaled on the piling in January 1975. A salvage contract with a firm from Newhaven was made and it took three weeks to get her off. She was taken to Newhaven for repairs, after drifting ashore at Pett on the way! The ship is now a nightclub in Bristol Docks.

Another ship dealt with was the Hoo Fort, which went ashore on the Camber side and had bottom damage and was declared a total loss by underwriters. The firm was involved with the Fairlight Sea Defences in 1990 as agents for the tugs and barges, which put the stone brought from Norway at the bottom of the cliffs to try and stop erosion and thus save the houses etc.. They did a similar job at Folkstone.

Future of Rye Harbour

 As Seacon is predominantly a ship broker. Rye’s future as a port is not vital to the Company’s existence, but Rye has good prospects. The biggest risk is the economics of ship size. The very small ships have gone for ever;  a ship of 2.000 tons can be crewed by five or six men, whereas one of 600 tons needed the same number of crew. The river limits Rye too, by its size and tidal constraints, as well as the facilities offered.

Whereas the ideal port would bring in a cargo and take another out, Rye will mainly continue to be an importing port, as are Newhaven and Shoreham, while many other ports, such as Llandulas, only export.

Transport by sea is comparatively cheap – and very eco-friendly. Twenty years ago stone cost £3 a ton to ship from North Wales and now it costs £3.85, a negligible increase compared with the costs of road transport – and think of the number of lorries which would be involved in moving the same amounts!