Rye Community Centre – past and present

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As renovations at the Rye Community Centre (RCC) come to their conclusion, it is a good time to reflect on where the centre currently fits into the life of Rye and compare its role in the past.

Back in 1969 under the leadership of the late Canon John Williams the centre was established in the old United Reform Church near the bottom of Conduit Hill, with a subsequent 99-year lease. Initial works required to convert the church for community use, once the pews were removed, included the installation of toilets and a stage and the outfitting of a kitchen. The organisation ran on a shoe-string for some years with fundraising events, grants and donations from local people to help it survive.

In those early days, bingo sessions were a regular feature along with a junior club offering table tennis and other games and events, including entering a float in the annual Rye carnival. There were always dances and occasional parties as well as discos run by the one time chair, and the WI market became a regular weekly event.

In 1973, a fledgeling film club was set up using a projector and reels of film, well before  the age of the video cassette or DVD.

With the exception of the WI market which eventually was replaced by the Country Market, all these events stopped as times moved on and community needs changed.

Save the Mary Stanford lifeboat house fundraiser

The big change in the centre’s history came in 1997 when the owners of the building said they intended to sell it and offered it to the organisation at half the market price, i.e. for £35,000. The opportunity was too good to miss and with the substantial fundraising of the late Paul Blomfield, together with grants from Rye and Rother councils, the amount was raised and a new chapter began.

Since then the centre has gone from strength to strength, having negotiated, in the past, more funds to rebuild the retaining wall at the rear of the building (£26,000), completely replacing the ceiling of the main hall (£10,000) and to tarmac the car park. It had for many years a surface of crushed brick (£11,000). It should also be noted that since its inception in 1998, the Rye Film Club has raised many thousands of pounds to support the centre, with its monthly feature films still shown on the first Friday of each month.

Recent renovations also include repainting external windows and the rear stairway to the upper hall, generously funded by the Rye Society of Artists, as well as the current renovations of the main hall.

After all that expenditure, we have a centre currently used for markets, parties, wedding receptions, badminton, a monthly repair cafe, as a polling station and Zumba exercise classes, for art exhibitions, for Rye Arts Festival events, for theatre and the welcome return of bingo and a dance centre in the back hall,

The present committee tries to face all the challenges that so many events bring and have wonderful staff and volunteers to help, though could do with more on the monthly film nights.

For any further and detailed information please go to www.ryecommunitycentre.co.uk.

Image Credits: Kt bruce , Adrian Wheeler , Sally Bayly , Chris Lawson , Heidi Foster , Rye News library , Kenneth Bird .

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