Discovering Rye

I'd heard of Rye, but to be brutally honest, I wouldn't have known where to find it - but when I did - oh wow!!!

Many years ago, when I lived in Royston, every Wednesday & Saturday I'd make for the Auction Rooms to see what treasure I could find,  I only had £5 to spare (which actually bought quite a lot) and there were always so many things I wanted!  On this particular occasion, I espied a pair of etchings, I didn't recognise the subject matter, I just liked the quaintness of them, on the back of the pictures, someone had written 'The Landgate, Rye' on one, and 'The Mermaid Inn, Rye', on the other.  I just enjoyed looking at them, they had an aura about them that took me back in time - I had to have them!  They ended up costing me £6, but worth every penny, I thought. 

They hung, prominently, on the walls of every house I ever lived in, and when my husband and I divorced, I made sure the etchings came with me!

Some years on, and the etchings still hanging on my wall, never failed to tranfix me.  As my 50th Birthday approached, my friend David, asked me what I would like as a gift - I told him that I would like to go to Rye, and find these landmarks, as by now, I had discovered that they were very famous landmarks indeed - the Mermaid Inn, in particular, was shown on many calendars and Christmas cards.

So out came the maps and the Tourist Information guide to b&b's in Rye.  Our first choice could not accomodate us, but suggested Playden Cottage, just a mile outside the centre of Rye. Playden Cottage  turned out to be a large, imposing, white house, nestling on the side of a hill, amongst the most beautiful gardens.  Our host, Mrs. Fox, came out to greet us warmly.  It was the start of a most wonderful experience. 

After settling into our large, immaculately furnished, twin bedded room, complete with tea/coffee tray and bowl of fresh fruit, we set off to explore Rye.  What we found just took our breath away - here was a town who's amazing history had been frozen in time. Rye is one of the Cinque Ports and has a wonderful maritime history, David had spent most of his life in the Royal Navy and I just loved history and architecture, so Rye suited us both very well indeed!  Little had changed since the old smuggling days, the steep cobbled streets flanked by the original houses, each with their own unique, never changing, facade  Many, now hotels and restaurants, art galleries, potteries and book shops.  So much to see, but our first priority was to find The Mermaid Inn and The Landgate.  We had been told by Mrs. Fox that we would find The Inn very easily on the incredibly steep and cobbled, Mermaid Street - cramping irons not a necessity but definitely no high heels!! We walked the length of it - up one side and down the other, but couldn't find any building that resembled my picture, eventually it was pointed out to us, an ivy covered, flat faced building with none of the character of the old Mermaid Inn the etcher had drawn - how could it have changed so much????

Full of disappointment, we went in search of The Landgate.  As we approached, it was obvious that it too, was very different from the etcher's interpretation of The Landgate as he saw it 70 years ago.  This was a town where time stood still, how could it be that two of Rye's most famous landmarks had changed so much?  Or had the etcher taken 'artistic licence' to the extreme?

Sadly, David and I walked on through The Landgate and up the narrow street beyond, stopping to glance in the window of an art gallery, there were many pictures of the Landgate, but none quite like mine. I looked back at the Landgate, and suddenly, there it was - my etching sprang to life before my eyes!  We had been looking at The Landgate from the wrong side!!  Very little had changed, in my picture, the top of The Landgate had crumbled slightly, and this had since been repaired.  Thus encouraged, we made out way back to The Mermaid, and sure enough, by going round to the back, we found the very famous view of The Mermaid Inn.

Content with our findings, we now felt able to explore the rest of Rye.

For anyone visiting Rye, the Heritage Centre should be the first stop.  Here you can discover its amazing history in the exciting Sound and Light Show - there's murder, mayhem and smuggling!

All Rye lies before you as you sit around a grand, authentic scale model of this ancient town.  The lights dim,the music starts, and you travel back into the past. As night falls, the houses light up one by one, smugglers move stealthily about in the moonlight.......  Ah, it was so exciting, we had to see it twice!

After such an interesting first day in Rye, we slept so soundly that night, that we awoke very early the next morning, Mrs. Fox was already up and about, preparing breakfast, she showed us into a really charming breakfast room.  A large oval, mahogany dining table dominated the room, it was set with silver cutlery and sparkling white linen.  Fresh coffee percolated on one of the sideboards, another, laden with a wide variety of cereals, fruit juice, muesli and various dishes of dried fruits and nuts.  We were invited to make our own muesli, and this was then topped with a dollop of fresh yoghurt and drizzled with local honey.  Normally this would have been easily sufficient to see me through till lunch time, but no sooner had we finished than Mrs Fox deposited a plate of bacon, sausage, egg, tomato and large flat mushrooms, before us, and the hot toast just kept on coming!   We must have sat for an hour, eating our fill.  Those wonderful breakasts are something neither of us will ever forget.  Afterwards, we went to explore the beautiful gardens, the rhododendruns were in full bloom, we took some lovely photographs to remind us of this wonderful place.

We decided to use up some of those calories by walking the mile into town.  Today we went down to the quayside to poke around the antiques at the wonderfully named Pocketful of Rye, a large wooden construction that had once been one of the many boat houses. Then on to the Cinque Ports Pottery, housed in the old monastery where, from the public gallery, we were able to follow the entire process of pottery being made.

We didn't need lunch, but we did pop into The Cobbles Tea Room for a pot of tea and a fresh cream cake later in the afternoon! 

There's just so much choice of  places to eat, but The Flushing Inn had featured strongly in the Sound & Light Show, so we decided we really must relish the experience.  I adore seafood, but when I saw the seafood platter I'd ordered as a starter, I realised I wasn't going to be able to eat anything else - it was enormous!

It was most fortunate that David and I did a great deal of walking during our visit to Rye, because we also did a great deal of eating!

We were able to experience another of Mrs. Fox's wonderful breakfasts, those mushrooms were to die for, she went out to pick them fresh every morning, their wonderful flavour enhanced by cooking them with the bacon.

Eventuallywe had to go back home, but we knew that we would be back at the first opportunity, and we did go back the following year, and stayed at Playden Cottage again, of course.

The one thing that I'd never managed to find out - was the etcher's name.  Each print carried his signature, but it was proving impossible to decipher.

A few years later, the story of how I went in search of the landmarks in my etchings, was featured in the Channel 4 series 'Collector's Lot', as in the meantime, on a visit to Royston, I'd popped into an antique shop and found another etching by the same artist, but this time, no clue as to where I might find the castle on a hill, featured in the drawing. (This one cost me £25!)  After showing my pictures on Collector's Lot, Presenter, Sue Cook, asked viewers if they could identify the third etching and come up with the name of the artist.  The response was amazing, I was inundated with letters, all telling me that I ought to know that the third picture was of Bamborough Castle in Northumberland!  This too, was a very famous landmark, and had been used many times in films and television programmes.  One person managed to come up with the artist's name - George Huardel Bly!

Sadly, I have not been back to Rye for many years, but it will remain - a very favourite place!

ps Scanner not working at the moment, but will post photographs as soon as I can.