Welcome to a monthly series of articles called “The newbies’ view of Rye” describing how one couple finds their new life in Rye. But this won’t be a conventional guide to the town and the area – no hints and tips, pointers or insider knowledge.
It’s more of an emotional journey, recounting the reactions and reflections of two people freshly arrived in this corner of England. But before we delve into our story, a prelude is called for.
To ask the most obvious question first: How did a Northerner and an Australian, living and working in London, end up in Rye in the first place? Over to our narrators . . .
Why Rye?
When we were selling our home in south-west London, we realised that we had a free hand as to our next location (so long as we could still work in the metropolis).
And before you could say “swimmers”, my Aussie partner was on the computer searching “beach + London commute”. One persistent result was: Camber Sands/Rye.
We look at each other, mystified. Neither of us had ever been to this part of the world. In fact, the nearest familiar place (with familiar faces) was Brighton.
Then we started pouring over the images – a long, dune-backed sandy beach and cobbled streets huddled about with medieval buildings. Now we’re talking! Could anywhere within reach of the capital have greater appeal to a professional archaeologist and a trained historian? So when people ask: What brought to you Rye? We can truthfully say: Google.
Love at first sight
Of course, Rye isn’t the only town on the coast with a reasonable train service to London. And our laptops did take us to alternatives in Sussex and Kent. But then we visited Rye. As always with encountering a strange place, it’s difficult to take it all in. What’s our frame of reference?
In the end, nothing rational seemed to matter very much. Mermaid Street alone could probably have sold us the town.
From that day, we struggled to engage hard-headed logic re our prospective move from SW19 [associated with tennis] to TN31; an approach not helped by nicknaming the enterprise “Project Mermaid”, with all its associations of salty myth and ancient romance. Hardly the stuff of train timetables and off-street parking.
Sharing the idea with friends in London generated mixed reactions. One joked “You’ll miss that orange glow we Londoners call the sky”.
But, catching the sunrise over the salt marsh , or seeing the night sky brightly pricked with stars, we were soon even more enraptured by the dream of a place in Rye.
Town house
Having firmly stuck a pin in the marshy map, the next task was finding our new home. But that’s another story (and who wants to dwell on 15 months of pain?).
Suffice to say, we landed here just before Christmas 2014. And that brings us to our first surprises as the newbies in town. See you next month!
Photos: Simon Kershaw