Bits and Pieces
A little bit late but I would like to wish all members and visitors to this site a Happy New Year and a fervent hope that the world will come out of this awful pandemic sometime soon now that the vaccination programme is starting. The Society has not been able to hold its meetings or have any of its usual social events, but we are still here!
During lockdown some of our committee led by Allan Thomson have been sifting through early archives of the Society which began life in 1972 as the Rye Preservation Society. There is a wealth of interesting stuff notably how the Society became involved in major campaigns including opposition to a marina proposal and the A259 by pass enquiry. We plan to reprint a short early history of the Society which we think will be of interest to members, particularly some of our older long standing members. Summaries of "The Early Years" can be downloaded below, covering 1972 to 1991.
We are approaching a notable milestone for the Committee, our next meeting will be the 499th and so the following meeting on March 11th, will be the 500th. This is quite an achievement for the Society and we hope there will be many more. We are looking to see if we can open this meeting up to more members using the Zoom facility that we are using for our meetings at present. With over 200 members the Society is looking in healthy shape but we are always encouraging new members and like other local organisations we would like to see more volunteers for the committee.
We have had a number of suggestions for RCS Awards and these will be published on the web site next month with full details. It would be nice to be able to present them at our AGM but at the moment its not possible to plan ahead for that.
In the Summer there were complaints about a litter bin in Church Square which being uncovered was regularly overflowing and attacked by sea gulls.
The Committee agreed to fund a replacement bin and this is now in situ as you can see. A plaque mentioning the Society's involvement is mooted.
The Society is fortunate in having some financial reserves which we feel should be used where appropriate to improve the town with local partners.
The Rye Chamber of Commerce is seeking to brighten up the town by creating a Rye in Bloom, with planters in the High Street and floral displays supported by its members. The Town Council is supporting the idea which hopefully will bring some cheer to the town in the Summer. The Conservation Society will donate a small sum towards this initiative.
In a similar vein we were pleased to see that the Captain Pugwash garden outside the station which had looked rather neglected has been tidied up and hopefully will be better maintained in future by the Southern Rail Partnership.