Looking at the photo above (other than the fact that the road markings are a bit of a give away) you could be forgiven for thinking the street scene of a typical terrace of houses was photographed early one morning, perhaps well over 100 years ago. There are no cars or vehicles, nobody up and about yet, no washing lines strung between the rows of houses, and no signs of life at all.
But the photo was actually taken on Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 8am and it is of Rope Walk in Rye with no cars – something rarely seen – and, by changing the shot to black and white, the photograph has easily been ‘aged’ by a century at least.
But, back to 2020, the second lockdown phase is now in its first week and, coupled with the fact that the new parking regime is firmly in place, the streets of Rye look very different. Visitor numbers driving into town have dropped dramatically as you would expect and, when vehicles are around, most seem to be doing the right thing now and parking legally where allowed, or heading to the car parks instead of parking where they should not.
Rye has changed and, like most towns throughout the country, it has had to adapt to increasing vehicle numbers, shopping habits and pressures of 21st century living – but it does not do any harm to remind ourselves of what it might have looked like all those years ago when things seemed a lot more simple. Unfortunately life is not just viewed in black and white, it’s now more colourful, as shown in the original un-doctored photo below.
Image Credits: Nick Forman .