It was great to have the opportunity to address the audience at the annual Rye Town Meeting last week and give an update on our progress. To give some more detail let me tell you what we’ve been up to and what we plan for this year.
Over the winter we have taken the opportunity to refresh our display space on the first floor and there you can currently see a display of old photographs along with some quotes from an amazing 1860 publication by HP Clarke who had a printing business in the high street. He started this business in part because he was fed up with established publishers not printing what he saw as the political truth of the day – some of his words can be quite amusing in style and you could be forgiven at times for thinking not much has changed!
We are also pleased to be hosting a small display of Royal Sussex Regiment artefacts which are on loan from the Royal Sussex Regiment Association.
Most of all though we are excited to finally have our Smuggler’s Attic experience fully operational and ready for an official launch on Good Friday.
Coming up
Moving forward though the year we plan to have short term exhibitions covering the 80th anniversary of D-Day; Past Characters of Rye and Gin versus Beer (a look at the history of the changing pub scene in Rye over the centuries).
We’re aiming to improve our social media presence to help keep both visitors and the local community up to date with what’s on offer so please like and follow our Facebook and Instagram accounts and check out our website for up to date info. Search for ryeheritage on social media and find us at www.ryeheritage.co.uk.
Coming up this month as well as the Smuggler’s Attic is a talk by historian David EP Dennis The Pirate Devils of Rye and Winchelsea on Wednesday, March 27 at 6:15pm (tickets £10 available form the website) and, courtesy of Rye Rotary, a chance to chat with Noel Varley over a cup of tea or coffee and a slice of cake and see his personal collection of images and articles about Rye’s history. It’s an ideal opportunity to for you to bring along your own old photos or ephemera and talk to us as well. More talks and events will be added in due course. On Tuesday, April 23 there will be another talk entitled Invasions and Migrations.
Recently we put out an appeal for any old cine film footage of the area, especially that produced by the cine club which existed some years ago. We are still looking but I’m pleased to say that one gentleman has produced quite a large quantity of film for us to take a look at. The intention with this old footage is to work with Screen Archive South East to make sure that the content is preserved for the future, digitised and, with the owner’s permission, shared with the wider public. Today we are so used to capturing every event and moment on our phones but old cine footage can provide a fascinating insight into social history and it’s very much a case of what you think might be ordinary and everyday can be an absolute gem to the eye of a historian.
What else? Well, as many of you will know we spent a lot of time over the winter of 2022/23 upgrading the Story of Rye sound and light show and the town model, this year will see us progressing into the next phase which is to create additional shows around the model to provide some variety and more interest – for example we hope to be able to use the new equipment with the model as a backdrop to illustrate the local events of second world war and there are a lot more possibilities too. If you remember last year’s event to commemorate the visit of Elizabeth I then you’ll be pleased to know we are currently planning another community based collaborative event this August – watch this space!
How can you help?
As a small charity of course the most obvious ways to help are by volunteering and donating funds but there’s so much more to it as well – you can visit us with guests, friends, family regularly, maybe make a purchase in our retail area; spread the word about the town model and the Story of Rye to those you meet in your everyday life; like and share our social media posts; tell us your own stories and those your ancestors told you and attend our talks and events
Lastly we are also building an archive library of books and other written material as well as an image library for research and reference purposes, these items are accessible to the public for their own private research, get in touch if you’d like a list or to come in and take a look.
Image Credits: Juliet Duff .