What began with one piece of cheddar and a few crackers has grown into one of Rye’s more unusual and certainly tastier Sunday traditions.
Five years ago, Neville Andrews and Ian Miller started the Cheese Club at the Waterworks Micropub. It was a modest affair at first, but word spread and so did the cheeseboard. Today, Sunday afternoons can see an impressive assortment of cheeses arriving, brought along by members ready to share, sample and socialise.
The idea is wonderfully simple. The Cheese Club meets every Sunday from 1pm until 3pm, with people bringing along a cheese to add to the communal table. Over the years it has become as much about friendship and conversation as it is about discovering a particularly good Stilton, Brie or something altogether more adventurous.
There is even a suitably cheesy motto: “Bring cheese, eat cheese, no cheese, hard cheese, you’re not in the Club!” The Sunday Cheese Club continues to be listed as a regular event at the Waterworks.
The Waterworks itself provides an appropriately characterful setting. Its historic Tower Street building dates back to 1718 and has had several lives, including as Rye’s waterworks and a soup kitchen, before eventually becoming a micropub.
From that solitary piece of cheddar and a handful of crackers to five years of Sunday gatherings, the Cheese Club proves that sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.
And after five years, they’re still saying, “Cheese”
Image Credits: Kt bruce .