If you had to miss Jo Kirkham’s amazing sweep through  2000 years of Rye history–The Story of Rye Royale in about 58 minutes ( Tuesday (March 9)–we’re sorry, but do make sure you have the following events in your diary:    

Museum Events for March/beginning of April

Tuesday, 9 March  East Street  7:30 Jo Kirkham
Saturday 13th March 10.30 – 12.30:  3, East Street
Museum Coffee Morning

Excellent fairtrade and organic coffee and tea, cakes, and interesting table sales: cakes, posh trash and books. 

Free entry to museum, all welcome.  A great time and place to meet and make friends.

Tuesday 16th March: 6.30: 3, East Street
Volunteers’ and Open Evening

Come and have a glass of wine and light refreshments and find out about  the  events and projects planned for this year;    If you like what you hear, then sign up and join us!  

At our last open evening members and friends came up with many excellent ideas for Museum development and outreach.   To mention just one outcome:   The Ypres Tower will be open seven days a week during the next season.    We have a splendid team of volunteers who act as stewards and carry out many other tasks but to fulfill all our aspirations we need to increase volunteer numbers.  There are jobs for all who are willing so if you’d like to help but can’t make the meeting, please phone 0179726728  or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk     

Saturday 27 March at 7.30 pm at the Rye Methodist Church
Ryesingers Ladies present “Sigh No More Ladies!”, a  Concert in aid of the Women’s Tower rescue and renovation plans

Tickets £7. Includes a glass of wine in the Ypres Tower after the concert.   Tickets at  Museum events and at the door.

1st April: Beginning of the new season at Rye Museum

Due to popular demand, this season the Ypres Tower will be open 7 days a week (not 5) and from 10.30 to 5.00 (no closure at lunchtime).  Last entry 4.30 .    East Street Museum hours will continue as before, but if enough of you volunteer for stewarding (usually just once a month) we may be able to extend there too.

For the rest of March,  Winter hours continue.

For details see  Hours and Charges. 

Women Tower Project

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 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 85 articles and some improvements to design and navigation.  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 talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know!  jlfloydeltc@gmail.com

 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.  See below for more details on this importat project

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

Catch up here on Events,  the Museum Website,  Book News,  Opening Hours,  The Women’s Tower Project and Volunteer Opportunities…..

Events

Are the next events in your diary? 

Tuesday 9th February East Steet   7;30   Dr John Reuther
The Origin and History of Nursery Rhymes

A fascinating exploration with many surprises, following by a raffle and light refreshments.
Admission for members £1.50 for members, guests £2.50. All welcome!

Saturday 13 February East Street  10:30-12:30
Coffee Morning

Excellent Fairtrade organic tea and coffee, a cake stall, a bric a brac stall and a book stall.  Free entry to the museum. All welcome.

Tuesday, 9 March  East Street  7:30 Helen Wojczak
Ten Notable Women of Rye

This coincides with Internatiional Women’s Day.

Rye Museum Website   

As promised, we have embarked on an ambitious programme to add  articles–there are now 85–and improve design.   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 talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know!  jlfloydeltc@gmail.com

Book News

Rye in World War II 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 weekends, the Ypres Tower.  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.  See below for more details on this importat project

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

 Winter Opening Hours   

East Street site:   Closed for visits  until April when there will be several new exhibits. However,  as indicated above there will be a number of special events during the winter season.  

Ypres Tower:  Open 10:30 – 3:30 on Saturdays and Sundays .   

Women Tower Project

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! The process has already   begun:  English Heritage approved plans,  proper recording, preservation and storage of items kept in the Women’s Tower…..  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 and ensuring they are properly documented.

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         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. 

 Volunteers Welcome!

Members and friends,  including present and would-be volunteers, came up with many excellent ideas for Museum development and outreach at  a recent open meeting.   To mention just one outcome:   The Ypres Tower will be open seven days a week during the next season.    We have a splendid team of volunteers who act as stewards and carry out many other tasks but to fulfill all our aspirations we need to increase volunteer numbers.  For more information and/or to join the team, phone 0179726728  or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk     There are jobs for all who are willing! ]]> http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/index.php/2010/02/february-news/feed/ 0 http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/index.php/2010/01/bonfire-nights-in-the-19th-century/ http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/index.php/2010/01/bonfire-nights-in-the-19th-century/#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:56:08 +0000 jean http://www.ryemuseum.co.uk/?p=1813 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.

Events

Are the next events in your diary? 

Tuesday 9th February East Steet   7;30   Dr John Reuther
The Origin and History of Nursery Rhymes

A fascinating exploration with many surprises, following by a raffle and light refreshments.
Admission for members £1.50 for members, guests £2.50. All welcome!

Saturday 13 February East Street  10:30-12:30
Coffee Morning

Excellent Fairtrade organic tea and coffee, a cake stall, a bric a brac stall and a book stall.  Free entry to the museum. All welcome.

Tuesday, 9 March  East Street  7:30 Helen Wojczak
Ten Notable Women of Rye

This coincides with Internatiional Women’s Day.

Rye Museum Website   

As promised, we have embarked on an ambitious programme to add  articles–there are now 85–and improve design.   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 talents or information on some aspect of Rye’s history you would be willing to share, please let us know!  jlfloydeltc@gmail.com

Book News

Rye in World War II 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 weekends, the Ypres Tower.  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.  See below for more details on this importat project

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

 Winter Opening Hours   

East Street site:   Closed for visits  until April when there will be several new exhibits. However,  as indicated above there will be a number of special events during the winter season.  

Ypres Tower:  Open 10:30 – 3:30 on Saturdays and Sundays .   

Women Tower Project

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! The process has already   begun:  English Heritage approved plans,  proper recording, preservation and storage of items kept in the Women’s Tower…..  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 and ensuring they are properly documented.

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. 

 Volunteers Welcome!

Members and friends,  including present and would-be volunteers, came up with many excellent ideas for Museum development and outreach at  a recent open meeting.   To mention just one outcome:   The Ypres Tower will be open seven days a week during the next season.    We have a splendid team of volunteers who act as stewards and carry out many other tasks but to fulfill all our aspirations we need to increase volunteer numbers.  For more information and/or to join the team, phone 0179726728  or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk     There are jobs for all who are willing!

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 . . . .

This article appeared in RM&LHG Journal 61

What is Tunbridgeware?

The exact origins of Tunbridgeware are not well documented but it seems it was originally made by cabinet makers of Tonbridge before the springs were discovered in the early 1600’s and brought into being in the town of Tunbridge Wells. Early ware made for visitors to the Spa was mainly wood turned on a lathe, at first without decoration and later painted with lacquer. However the craft changed considerably over the years. The second half of the 18th century saw the introduction of veneered ware where thin slices of different coloured woods were inlaid to form a design or picture. In the 1830’s the art of tessellated mosaic work, which is made in a completely different way to a normal veneer inlay, began.

The industry flourished and as the mosaic designs evolved so the range of products grew from banjos, to furniture and yo yos. As with any art form there were a number of famous producers, each with distinctive designs–names such as Wise, Fenner and Nye, Thomas Barton, Robert Russell, Henry Hollamaby and Boyce Brown and Kemp.

The production of mosaic work was painstaking and slow. Firstly a design in the form of a chart would be made of the subject with a key to the wood to be used– as in the example designed by Thomas Littleton Green, my grandfather.  Many patterns were used: geometric, cube,  berlin, woolwork (popular in Victorian times); patterns used for banding patterns, landscapes, animals, flowers and well-known buildings.

Next, and this is where this method is so totally different, the tiny pieces of wood which had been cut by hand were assembled according to the chart until a row was completed, which was then glued, put under pressure and left to dry for at least twelve hours. The next was assembled in the same manner and so on until all the rows in the chart/pattern were completed. These strips were then assembled in order with reference to the chart to form a block with desired pattern running its length rather like a stick of rock. It was from these blocks that the ‘veneers’  were cut and used on the items to be decorated.

Large designs could comprise six, nine or even twelve smaller units and take weeks or months to complete, Some of the designs of blocks representing a view like the Pantiles such as that made by Boyce, Brown and Kemp could contain up to 25,00 tesserae. The veneers cut from a block were about 1.6mm) 1/1681 thick and a seven inch block could yield about 70 to 80 identical veneers. Apart from a lathe which was used for turning buttons and knobs etc, the circular saw that cut the veneers was the only other piece of machinery. The glue was important too to ensure a perfect finish was obtained. Animal glue used was warmed in a double boiler glue-pot to the correct temperature to ensure the consistency gave a good join.

Finally the finished pieces had to be varnished–another meticulous job as there was no ‘quick-dry’ version available and several coats of shellac varnish might be required.

The wood used came from around the world, probably chosen for the colours they offered. The names of some of them sound like poetry: rosetta (rosy brown), pedouk, mulberry (yellow), kingwood (deep brown/ purple), holly (white), purple heart, ebony, fustic (yellow), sycamore, walnut and cherry to name a few. There were about three hundred woods used as the colours all came from the wood itself. Even the green was not dyed but came from oak that had been attacked by a fungus. I am told that my father and his sisters were taught to be on the lookout for green oak whenever out walking in the countryside.

My grandfather, Thomas Littleton Green. was the last person to make Tunbridgeware on a commercial scale. My memory of my grandfather is a little hazy as I was quite young when he died but I remember a kind, gentle humoured man who was nice to be with. He was born in Maidstone in 1892 and went to Tonbridge School before qualifying as an engineer. During the First World War he served in France in the Royal Flying Corps. He married at the end of the war and honeymooned at the New Inn, Winchelsea.. It was about this time he met Richard Kemp, a son of one of the partners of Boyce, Brown and Kemp,  a leading manufacturer of Tunbridgeware from the late 1870’s until the Second World War.

Richard Kemp and Thomas Littleton Green formed a partnership and Rye Mosaics was born. Kemp brought with him skills learnt from the family business and also, it seems,  a quantity of veneers. Sadly this partnership did not prove to be a total success and in 1934 was dissolved.  Green took over sole management of the business. He proved to be an enterprising manager and introduced electricity to operate his saw, lathe and sander. He had a workforce of three and the business not only sold souvenirs to visitors to Rye but also supplied retailers.

In April 1932 his work was displayed at the Ideal Home Exhibition, Olympia. The Evening News wrote.

Among the wonders of Olympia are many examples of romantic old crafts. And of all of them the most puzzling is that of the Old Rye Mosaics. Samples of them are displayed among fancy iron work near Princess Elizabeth’s little house – penholders, inkstand needle cases, snuff boxes and so on all made from infinitely small fragments of coloured wood.

 The paper quotes Green as saying

 They are made from naturally coloured woods, of which we have about 300 sorts in stock now, including English green oak, apple pear and other fruit trees, holly, mahogany, yew, rosewood, plane and laburnum.

Whilst Rye Mosaics could not match the production of the commercial businesses in Tunbridge Wells it nevertheless produced a wide range of smaller items,  from boxes for playing cards, matches, stamps etc to mirror and picture frames, pin trays, yo yos, brooches .ringstands, needlecases and bookmarkers.  Green used a number of traditional Tunbridgeware designs including the perspective cube work. He also used the Hollamby technique of spelling out words in mosaic and a range of boxes were produced spelling words such as ‘Rye’ to sell to visitors to the town. Green also developed a range of designs that included the clock and jacks of St Mary’s, the windmill, a parrot, a butterfly and a  design for the coronation of Edward VIII that was subsequently modified for the coronation of King George VI.

Thomas Green did not mark any of his wares but many of his boxes use a characteristic tongue joint at the corners not found in use by other Tunbridgeware makers. That Green possessed skill and artistry is evident in the necklace that can be seen in the Rye Castle Museum. He is quoted in the Evening News as saying (when talking about the art of Tunbridgware):  ‘

There is a penholder which has nearly 1,000 tiny fragments of wood in its intricate ornamentation and a string of beads with 540 pieces to each bead.

It seems that Lady Maud Warrender, who lived at Leasam House, visited Rye Mosaics with her friend Queen Mary who apparently made it known that she would be pleased to accept a necklace made of Tunbridgeware beads. Green made one for Queen Mary and a replica for his wife, which can be seen in Rye Museum. The outbreak of war in 1939 brought the production of Rye Mosaic works to a halt as my grandfather joined the Royal Engineers.

The location of Rye Mosaics in Market Road was approximately where the entrance of Jarrold Close is today. Sadly, during the war a bomb fell close to the workshop causing devastation and irreparable damage to both stock and the workshop.

With thanks to my father and Brian Austen’s book Tunbridgeware and related European Decorative Woodwares

 Vivienne Challans 2007

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Slightly adapted, with additions,  from an article  in  Rye’s Own No. 115 (February 2004). Information for the Rye’s Own article came from a 1970s newspaper cutting sent to Julie Fuggle by her American pen pal Mary Toohy who lives in Rye, New York . Julie and Mary have been writing to each other since the early fifties when Miss Lister at Rye Youth Club supplied names of pen pals to members.   

In 1660 three men originally from Rye in Sussex, England,  living in Greenwich, Connecticut, purchased a tract of land  on the beautiful shore of Long Island Sound from Mohegan Indians. It cost them  eight coats, seven shirts and four pounds ten shillings sterling.  Little did the three–Peter Disbrow, John Coe and Thomas Studwell– realize that they were thereby starting  the oldest settlement in what is now affluent Westchester County, New York.  Confusingly, it now  includes both the Town of Rye and the City of Rye, separate municipalities. The former has three times the population of the latter, which in turn has three times the population of Rye, Sussex.

At the time of the arrival of the white man, the area now known as  Rye, New York was one vast unbroken wilderness, with the Mohegan tribe its sole inhabitants. The Mohegans had set up camps on the shores of brooks entering Long Island Sound.  Over the next few years, Disbrow, Coe and Studwell, joined by other Greenwich settlers, expanded their holdings from the initial Peningoe Neck to include Manursing Island and these eventuallyencompassed entities now  known as the City of Rye, the Town of Rye, Harrison, White Plains and parts of Greenwich and North Castle.  A neighboring town named Hastings was merged into Rye in the 1660s.

In 1665, Connecticut merged the various settlements under the name of Rye,  home of those early settlers from Rye, England.  For nearly one hundred years the official location of Rye seesawed between the State of Connecticut and that of New York.  In 1683, Rye was ceded unwillingly to the Province of New York by King Charles II as a gift to his brother, the Duke of York. But when a New York court severed the Harrison area from the settlement in 1695, the Rye colonists rejoined Connecticut in protest. In 1700, Rye again became part of New York by royal decree, this time permanently. The New York State Legislature officially established the Town of Rye boundaries in 1788. 

 The majority of the first settlers were farmers and millers. Within a few years, several docks or landings were built from which fishing craft sailed the Sound to Oyster Bay and New York. Eventually oystering became one of the major industries. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), they took up positions in Rye for the defence of Connecticut when the English under General Howe landed on Throggs Neck. Yet Rye  remained a secluded community for two centuries after its founding,   It was more than fifty years after its inception in 1660 that the first school was established.  

During the first half of the 18th Century, the community started to flourish.  In 1739, the Rye-Oyster Bay ferry was inaugurated. In 1772 the New York-Boston Stagecoach made its initial run with Rye as an official stopover.  The milestones from New York City were fixed by Benjamin Franklin in 1763; some still exist. In the mid 1800s, when the New Haven Railroad was completed, Rye became a popular summer resort for New Yorkers, Horseracing on the Flats (Rye Beach) was a special attraction. With the coming of rail transportation, Rye experienced its first real growth. For the exorbitant sum of eight cents, one could travel all the way to New York City, 22 miles to the northeast

As the oldest settlement in Westchester County, the City of  Rye boasts  many historical landmarks, most prominent being the oldest house in the county, built in 1663 and still standing at Milton Road and Rye Beach Avenue. The Square House, built in 1700, is properly dubbed ‘a portal to the history of New York State’. It is here that travellers, first by foot, then by horse and later by stagecoach, stopped for refreshments and rest at Haviland’s, as the house was then called. The Square House became the source of world news and attracted settlers from all over the area.  The ‘greats’ of American history made it a point to break up their travels and spend some time at the Square House. Records show that John and Sam Adams visited the house in 1774, and, from his personal diary dated October and November 1789 , President George Washington not only slept there once, but twice. The Marquis de Lafayette visited the Square House in 1824.
By 1904  Rye boasted two schools, five churches,a  library and a population of 3,500. It was during this year that Rye was incorporated as a village. In 1942  Rye village adopted the status of a City, leaving the Town of Rye.  

Today the City of Rye is a unique conglomerate of the old and the new, an unusual blending of a 300 year history and a suburban community  with every modern facility.  Its official seal displays in the centre a ship copied from the seal of Rye; around it are a peace pipe, a torch of freedom and significant dates in the city’s history.    The city is home to a museum and an  historic amusement park, the Rye Playland, which is also designated as a National Historic Landmark.

 Our town of Rye and the City of Rye, New York, are in regular communication; there have been exchange visits and exchange gifts.  Each is proud of the other.

To come:

There is also a Rye (as well as a Winchelsea, Brighton, Hastings  and St Leonards) in Victoria, Australia, and another in New Hampshire and . . . .   Not surprisingly for an important shipbuilding town, Ryers emigrated, and in Rye ships too.  There are more stories to tell about Other Ryes.

 There have always been Potters in Rye and some examples of medieval Rye pottery can be seen in the Ypres Tower. (More recent examples are displayed at the East Street site.) Potters were again active in Rye during the eighteenth century and a brick works and pottery existed at Cadborough Farm,  just west of Rye on the road to Udimore. The farm belonged to a Jeremiah Smith who was a hop grower as well as Mayor of Rye seven times. It was Jeremiah Smith who gave a William Mitchell the responsibility of managing the Smith’s Pottery at Cadborough. This was the beginning of what was to become Rye Pottery, one of the many potteries operating in Rye over the years.

Rye Pottery

 William Mitchell was in charge of Cadborough by 1834 and by 1840 he seems to have bought the pottery business from Jeremiah Smith. Mitchell was helped in the Pottery by his two sons, Henry and Frederick. By 1850 Frederick, together with William Watson, began to experiment with applied decoration which later became a feature of the firm. In 1867 the Mitchell brothers and William Watson won third class certificates at Hastings and St.Leonards Industrial Exhibition. In the following year Frederick Mitchell bought the land for Bellevue Pottery  in Ferry Road and it opened for business in 1869. Frederick’s pottery was either rather rustic in style or decorated with hop patterns. The latter became  extremely popular.

 Frederick died in 1875 but his widow, Caroline, with help from William Watson, continued the business for the next twenty-one years. Caroline used to produce copies of more famous designs and was well known for small items or knick knacks. The products of the pottery were known as Sussex Rustic Ware  from the Rye Pottery.  In 1882 Caroline asked Frederick’s nephew, another Frederick, to join the firm. He took over the pottery when Caroline died in 1896. This Frederick Mitchell died in 1920 and again a Mitchell widow, this time Edith, carried on making pots for a further ten years.

In 1930 Mrs. Ella Mills bought the pottery but essentially kept the lines the same. Bellevue Pottery closed in 1939 because night firing contravened the black-out regulations.

 After the war the pottery was re-opened by John and Wally Cole, pre-war London based studio potters, under the name of Rye Pottery. Adapting a seventeenth century decorating technique used on English Delftware they produced a range of pieces to fulfill the post-war craving for decorative as well as utility household ware. By employing Bert Twort, the pre-war thrower they still made a few traditional shapes, including the famous Sussex Pig.

Wally Cole took on two apprentices, David Sharp and Dennis Townsend, both of whom later started their own potteries. Rye Pottery continued to train young potters, including James Elliott who later owned Cinque Ports Pottery. In 1982 Wally Cole was awarded the MBE for his services to Craft Pottery. The Pottery has won many awards and made the commemorative ware for the Investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1969. Wally Cole retired in 1978 but continued to produce his own studio pots until the end of 1997.

Cinque Ports Pottery

In 1956  George Gray and David Sharp started the Cinque Ports Pottery at the Mint in Rye. In order for the potteries to expand,  the partnership was dissolved and in 1964 George Gray moved Cinque Ports Pottery to the Monastery in Conduit Hill. The Mayoress of Rye, Mrs. W.M.Macer, officially opened the new premises on May 30th of that year. The showroom was situated at the top of the exterior stairway on the north side of the building in what was once a chapel.