“The area of Sussex, East of Rye may be small in area, but is packed with fascinating historical, geological and geographical interest. Although an area often omitted from county guides and histories, this talk will take some aspects of Camber and Broomhill to remedy that situation!” Said Dr Mead on April 13 at ST Thomas’ Church to a pretty packed audience.
And it certainly did. Starting with the geographics of the area from Rye through to the golf links, Camber and on to Broomhill and Jury’s Gap.
Dr Mead is a trustee of Rye Museum, also global studies at Sussex University, one of his specialties is interwar housing. Such as Camber village a ‘shantytown’ ! This is not politically acceptable now! and the term ‘plot lands’ replaced it. A plot was usually of a ¼ acre situated in a grid form like New York City. Most of Camber Village was of poor construction and condition. At first with no piped water supply, water was carried in from Rye, from boreholes, and chemical toilets were used. Many of the plot land bungalows were built on Marginal land not required for agriculture. The bungalows fell down or were pulled down and rebuilt, this is still going on today.Most of the housing in the village was built between the Wars, although after WWII The military caused as much damage to the Village as the enemy did during the war. Camber beach being considered a prime target for the invasion forces it was very heavily fortified.
Hard geology took up part of Dr Mead’s talk. It was very interesting how the landscape evolved. Camber had some service industry but mainly fertile agriculture and good fishing. Shingle and sand bars are a strong feature of the area and part of the economy was from the flint shingle, taken by boats and canals to Stoke for glazes.
Dr Mead made many interesting points, some of which will be remembered by locals:
Daniel Defoe of Robinson Crusoe fame, among other books, wrote ‘A whole tour of the Island of Great Britain’ in 1720, an early guide book which unfortunately hardly mentions our corner!
There used to be a tramway to the Golf links, a Golf club since 1894. Also a ferry from the Harbour of Rye to Camber point. Costs were 3d for a foot passenger, 4d for a stranger and 6d for a horse. (‘d’ indicates an old penny).
‘Smuggling’ was rife and on a topical note ‘smuggling’, the bringing of goods into the area and ‘Owling’ the taking of goods from the area to avoid paying taxes was a huge part of the economy. (With reference to the fictitious Dr Syn, Rudyard Kipling’s smugglers song, ‘Brandy for the Parson, Baccy for the Clerk’ and not to forget the more recent John Ryan’s, Pugwash) It was a fierce war and the coast guards and also Smugglers and Owlers needed to be heavily armed in the battle for riches.
“Landscape is always of interest and this is the furthest you can get of the Sussex coast before it topples into Kent, with the largest sand Dunes in all of Sussex”said Dr Mead.
Camber Heritage needs to be recorded and it was proposed to begin gathering together reminisces from all, and a list of contacts was started after the talk. Please send any of your memories or tales about any aspect of Camber life old and new, good or bad to:
Email:cambernews@hotmail.com
Or write to: Mike Botton, Wee McGregor, 131 Lydd Road, Camber Rye, TN31 7RS
Or telephone Carol Macdonald, 01797 224876