A new Explore Rye audio tour has launched, that puts the town at the forefront of innovation in tourism. Developed over many months, the updated guide allows visitors to enjoy the tour of Rye via their own hand-held devices.
Each tour is activated via a code available for £4.50 at the Rye Information Point in the town hall and the Rye Heritage Centre at Strand Quay. The download then brings the town to life via voiceovers, music and sound effects that visitors can store and enjoy whenever they wish to relive their trip to Rye.
The brainchild of Jessica Neame, deputy town clerk and Arabella Ansar, proprietor of A Rye Good Time town app, the project has been a model of community collaboration. One of the aims was to produce a tour that was relevant today and could last well into the future. To their delight, not only has this has been achieved but the audio tour is the very first of its kind within a town app – Rye is leading the way with this technology. Future plans under way include cycle tours and ghost tours.
Jessica Neame said: “The original audio tour, launched many years ago, was also a community effort and it has been lovely to be able to replicate that in creating our new tour of the town. The production of the re-vamped and updated tour simply wouldn’t have been possible without much generous help from A Rye Good Time, Rye Players and community members in providing their voices, to bring the tour to life.
“Special thanks must go to Pat Driver and Oliver McNeil for their energy and expertise in directing and recording the tour. Our old audio “wands” were reaching the end of their lives, so it has been exciting to be able to collaborate with A Rye Good Time to enable the new tour to be accessed via the town app instead. Here at Rye Information Point, we can’t wait to share the Explore Rye audio tour with all our visitors!”
Pat Driver said: “I think a lot of local people, as well as visitors, are going to enjoy going on walkabout with this tour. Not least the voiceover actors who all agreed to take part even before I’d finished asking them! It’s a rich soundscape involving many familiar voices from our local theatre scene. It’s fun hearing former mayor of Rye, John Breeds, going full Sussex smuggler in the Mermaid and it’s poignant too, hearing the voice of Dilys Mayor who passed away a short time after recording.
“How wonderful though, to hear her speak of the history of East Street, where she lived for many years. Fr Paul White, Rye’s vicar, does the honours for the St Mary’s segment and Susannah Mayor talks about Lamb House, with a ghostly intervention from Lawrence Wilson as Henry James. Voices from Valley Park to Camber gave their all for the reward of pure enjoyment. Oliver McNeil at the Storymaster’s Tales was a great producer at his tiny sound studio under The Mint. It was a community effort at its best and we’re all proud to have been involved in such a happy initiative.”
Codes to access the audio tour on the Rye town app can be purchased from information point at the town hall and at Rye Heritage Centre. Download the free town app here: https://aryegoodtime.co.uk.
Image Credits: A Rye Good Time .