Peter Hibbs, military historian and pillbox enthusiast, told me about the Rye Harbour History Group: “It was formed as part of Sussex Wildlife Trust’s Discover Rye Harbour Project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s activities finally commenced in April 2022 with an inaugural meeting and talks at the new Discovery Centre.”
He told me that: “Volunteers were recruited to undertake a series of monthly sessions until March 2024. The intervening time has seen the History Group undertake a mixture of classroom and outdoor sessions building up to September’s Pillbox Open Day, which provided the group with the opportunity to engage the public. A display set up in one of the pillboxes described the wonderful progress made to date by the group. The area around the Rye/Winchelsea area is rich in history and sessions have thus far focussed on military heritage, from Henry VIII’s Camber Castle to the Second World War defences. The latter represent a little-told story, and the landscape holds hidden evidence that our volunteers have been helping to uncover.”
The first outdoor session resulted in many tons of shingle and mud being cleaned out of the pillbox on the beach near the Harbour mouth. A second pillbox at Winchelsea was similarly tackled, although a return visit is required to finish off. A third Saturday saw their volunteers on their hands and knees cleaning the courtyard cobbles of Camber Castle. In order to remove turf without damaging the stones underneath, non-metallic tools had to be used. These ranged from sticks to plastic tent pegs and even a cooking spatula!
Katherine Crowther, Communications Officer, Rye Harbour Discovery Centre was on hand on the Open Day on Saturday, September 17. She said: “It was a great success with two hundred visitors keen to know about the history behind the pillbox. Peter and an enthusiastic group of volunteers from the History Club were on hand to answer questions and the adults and children were not disappointed by the wealth of knowledge shared with them. They saw a Vickers machine gun set up in one of the pillboxes to demonstrate how the landscape was to be defended in the event of invasion in 1940.”
A convoy of four Second World War military jeeps processed along the reserve road and parked up alongside the pillbox. The owners are all members of the Invicta Military Vehicle Preservation Society and were proudly dressed in period uniforms. They even set up a barbeque, made from a repurposed jerry-can, to cook sausages for lunch. One of the owners told me that his wife had seen an American jeep travelling down the road near to where they lived and she said she loved it. They bought one and had a 1940s wedding with the jeep centre stage.
The Discover Rye Harbour project is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. For details of events and activities taking place as part of the project, please visit the Rye Harbour Nature Reserve website’s event page.
Image Credits: Kt bruce .
What a brilliant initiative, bringing local history to life.
(I was also relieved to learn that the photograph didn’t represent the latest Home Office initiative on migration…)