The Rye town model is one of the town’s best attractions. It’s unique, fascinating and a bit eccentric. The sound and light show normally tells the history of Rye highlighting locations around town in the model of the town made over fifty years ago. A must see for visitors.
For this year’s Rye Arts Festival there’s a chance to see it as never before with two special performances commemorating Rye’s second world war history.
The usual sound and light show is being replaced with stories from the second world war compiled by Simon Parsons, the manager of Rye Heritage Centre – home to the town model. It’s a very personal story for Simon as many of the events are told through the eyes of his parents.
From bombing raids over Cadborough Cliff to air raid sirens in the town centre, the story you’ll see and hear during the special festival shows lays out in horrific detail just how Rye was on the front line, with a level of destruction hard to imagine eighty years on.
Simon’s script has been brought to life by Jenny Hadfield and James Stewart narrating Rye’s wartime history, with local Rye actors adding in voices and stories. Pictures appear on the big screen and lights within the town model highlight the locations mentioned.
Simon says: “It’s been an ambition since we took on the heritage centre in 2020 to make more of the unique asset that is the Rye town model. The forced refurbishment and replacement of electronic equipment in the winter of 2022/23 was a cloud that came with a silver lining – it enabled us to build in some technology to allow future development and flexibility. With the help of  the creation of new and innovative software and some incredibly hard work by Keith Warby and his team at Story and Brand, we have created a new sound and light show to be premiered for Rye festival.
“The original Story of Rye will remain as our staple feature but the second world war show is, we hope, the first in a series of limited supplementary shows we want to use to broaden the interpretative story telling that the heritage centre is renowned for. As James says this new show has projected imagery and makes use of the lights inside the model houses but there are a few surprises to reveal as well. We’re very excited to be bringing this to the public as part of the festival and extremely grateful to Keith, James, Jenny and our volunteer voices for helping us achieve our goal.”
The special town model performances are taking place as part of the Rye Arts Festival at Rye Heritage Centre on September 14 and 21. Ticket details here.
Image Credits: Rye Hertiage Centre .