Rye

 

Rye is of course in West Sussex rather than Kent, but it is too good to miss. We parked on the east side of the town and headed towards the centre and almost immediately ran into another handsome Smock Windmill. It is now a B&B!

Once we were in the town proper we passed this pub, the Old Bell which claimed to be the oldest pub in the town - dating from 1390.

 

We continued up the High Street passing the Old Rye Grammar School of 1636. The founder died in 1838 a bequeathed the building to the town as a free Grammar School. It continued until 1901.

Further along the High Street was a house lived in by Radcliffe Hall (born Marguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall) author of the novel The Well of Loneliness.

Continuing to the left we came to the Landgate (the portcullis was removed in 1735). This is the town side view ...

... and here is the view from outside the walls that once were joined to it.

From here we headed to the Town Hall. The present Rye Town Hall was built in 1742, and is the third known to have existed on the Market Street site (the first of which was burned to the ground by the French in 1377 - the French were always a threat).

Just behind it is the passage which leads to St Mary's Church. It is tucked away, but impressive when you go inside. The clock on the turret was installed in about 1561.

It was built early in the 12th century when the town itself and much of the surrounding area was held, under a Royal deed of gift from the Abbey of Fecamp in Normandy. This link with Fecamp, which was an important member of the Cinque Ports Confederation, explains why Rye has such a magnificent church. In between there was a period of decline from the late 17th century and extensive repairs in 1882 and after the Second World War.

I was surprised to discover that I hadn't noticed a window by Burne-Jones, but

From there we visited one of the oldest buildings in Rye, the Ypres Tower, which was built in 1249, as "Baddings Tower", to defend the town from the French. It was later named after its owner, John de Ypres,  and is now part of the Rye Museum.

This is the view from the Tower. You can just about make out the sea on the horizon, which illustrates the well-known retreat of the sea from the town.

Finally, we noted the splendidly-named Mermaid Street with its cobbled road surface.

From there it remained only to retrace our steps to the Windmill and our car park.