Several remarkable photographs of our late Queen on her royal visit to Rye in October 1966 have recently re-emerged, having been found in a private local photo archive. They offer fresh variations on photographs of the same event published by Rye News in 2016, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the visit.
The royal event feels almost like yesterday to many of us who experienced that day. Yet it was more than 60 years ago, on 28 October 1966, that Her late Majesty visited Rye as part of her celebratory processional tour of East Sussex. The tour began in Battle, proceeding to Rye, Winchelsea, Hastings and Pevensey, before ending the day in Eastbourne.
Her late Majesty had come to commemorate the 900th anniversary of King William the First’s victorious Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066. On that memorable royal visit, hundreds of local school children and adults lined the procession route, both in Rye and elsewhere.
I was one of those giddy visiting school children. Aged nine, I travelled with my excited school class on a day trip from our primary school in Berkshire, taking a 200-mile round coach journey to Hastings and back. And what a splendid day it was for children and adults alike.
On the apron of Hastings pier, in its spectacular, ultra-modern, purpose-built aluminium Tridome exhibition space, the late Queen and the public saw an impressive, modern “Bayeux Tapestry-style” artwork: a beautiful 70-metre-long contemporary embroidery, formed of 27 individual panels created by dedicated members of the Royal School of Needlework. It depicted our nation’s history from 1066 to 1966.
For us over-excited school children, the visit brought joy and purpose to our grand day out. I had never been away from home before, and the excitement of being in Hastings was almost too much. Our trip inspired our school term’s art project and ignited our love of history.
The adventure made sense of our otherwise mad yet passionate collecting of squashed silver foil milk bottle tops (who remembers those?) to paste as look-alike chain mail onto classroom collages of life-size Norman knights, ferociously galloping into battle against King Harold. Our historical wall narrative was inspired by what we had seen that day on Hastings pier.
To my astonishment and great joy, after all these years I recently revisited the same Hastings Embroidery, which deputy leader of Hastings Borough Council Julia Hilton described to the BBC as “an incredible piece of work.” It was on public display until recently on the first floor of Hastings Town Hall. Between 100 and 200 people a day visited since the exhibition opened on Saturday 29 August.
The Hastings Embroidery is as remarkable today as when first exhibited in 1966. The exhibition formed part of the town’s ongoing Year of The Normans celebration and complemented the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, currently showing at The British Museum in London.
by Terence Pomroy
