It has been a week of reflection and rejoicing. Our focus has been reflecting on the terrible tragedy of the Mary Stanford lifeboat crew who lost their lives valiantly going to the call to save others in 1928. We remembered every one of the 17 men in the poignant service at Rye Harbour Church last Sunday, where relatives and family members light a candle on the alter for every one of them – and current members of the RNLI place a rose on their grave at the beautiful memorial in the churchyard. We lay a wreath on behalf of Rye, alongside representatives from Winchelsea town and beach, plus the RNLI.
On Friday I was delighted to be asked to name a newly refurbished room at the Rye Sea Cadets – the Mary Stanford Room. This will be used for teaching and other events, and is a welcome addition to the venue. We are so grateful to all that the leaders do there and the time they devote, to encourage and develop the young cadets, setting them up with skills for life. It was also a pleasure to award a good conduct medal to the mayor’s cadet.
Sadly, I wasn’t able to stay for long that Friday evening, because there was a fundraiser for the Mary Stanford Lifeboat House at the community centre. Over the course of what can only be described as an epically long evening, many local musicians gave up their time to help raise money to save the boathouse. Rye Bay Crew performed the Mary Stanford song and we sang in other numbers, which was a privilege and great fun. Well done to all who took part and gave raffle and auction prizes, to help keep the names of all those who perished in our memories.
Saturday saw the official switch-on of the lights, which drew a fantastic crowd. I do hope that everyone went and bought their Christmas gifts from our lovely independent shops and supported our local economy. Well done to everyone who made this happen. We are just about there with the Christmas lights and thank you again to the crew who put them up. And a very big thank you to all those who supply electricity for the lights. There are around 15 different power suppliers over the town and we are so grateful to you for this – without you there would be no light! There are just a couple of more power sources we have to sort out and then all will be good (barring torrents of rain or wind!) for the family Christmas event on Saturday, December 2. Councillor Sophie Judge has been brilliant in organising everyone.
Work in the town quietly goes on to support others. A big thank you must go to Anthony Kimber for hosting another Ukrainian hub meeting on November 16 (we still have around a dozen families in Rye and the area) – and to officers at Rother and others in Rye for the work they are doing to progress the concept of the community pool. We are one step closer now that the Charity Commission has registered the community group set up to take over the management of the leisure centre. Work is continuing on the financial, practical and legal considerations.
Rother is hard pressed to pay for all the services it currently runs and has a consultation out at the moment that I would urge you to complete. Rye Town Council faces the prospect of taking on some of the services Rother can no longer afford to provide so these are big times ahead for our town council over the next 18 months or so.
On a lighter note, Rye Bay Crew will be singing at the New Inn Winchelsea on Sunday, November 26 from 7pm – 9pm.
In addition I am personally hosting a family Christmas event at the Buttermarket under the town hall on Saturday, December 16 from 4pm – 5pm. Come along and there will be carols, drinks and a mince pie for all, plus a small gift for children.
Image Credits: Kt Bruce , Isabel Ryan .
As an aside, I don’t know who was the Mayor of Rye in circa 1960, but Talking Pictures TV this week showed an old episode of Look at Life, which was a short documentary-style feature series shown in cinemas during that era. It included footage of the new Mayor distributing ‘hot’ pennies to children at the Town Hall on Maundy Thursday as well as other scenes of the town.
No doubt it would have been shown at the old Regent Cinema at that time. I can imagine the excitement of the audience, it being during a time when seeing local scenes on film were a rare treat!