Rye, West Street 1888

Rye Grammar School

I have a great-grandfather and several of his brothers who went to this grammar school in the 1830s and 1840s and they all had very nice writing with perfect copperplate. So maybe the severity on the outside was reflected in the teaching on the inside. My great-grandfather wrote with a quill pen on paper and I wonder whether anyone knows whether he used a quill at school. He knew a lot about New Zealand before he emigrated in 1849 and I also wonder whether he gained this knowledge from this school. This photo has been most interesting and gives me a much better idea of what school was like in my gr grandfather's time. He must have been taught well as he went on to become a most successful businessman. His father was a licensee at the the Barley Mow and Bedford Arms in Rye and they lived in a house shown as 'Cottage under the Cliff' in what I presume could be Undercliff Road or Fishmarket Road in the collection of photos by the Rye photographer Robert Baggallay Thorpe in 1866. It may still be there although the thatched roof would be long gone. Anyway it would be great if anyone else had something to add about the grammar school and the 'Under the Cliff' photo.

Carole's memories.

I was born in the house that lays back just out of view in this photo. The house was built in 1954 and our family were the only people to live there up until my father's death in 2008. I was born in the house, as were both my sisters. At that time the house was a tied cottage to the farm called Sharvels that was at the bottom of Cock Hill. In later years the farm was sold to Crown Properties and then later still the property was taken on by the local housing authority. There was a butcher shop to the left and another two doors up to the right that also had a dairy. A couple of doors down was the post office. There were five other shops in the village, Anthonys stores and Hales stores at the bottom, Jempsons and another at the top end which we called the Top shop but I cannot remember another name. There was also Farleys Garage. Only Jempsons still exist. Anthonys always had the best sweet selection and we would stop there on the way home from the local school for sherbert fountains and black jacks. We would also stop and watch the blacksmith shoeing horses and making things from wrought iron. It was always a good place to stop on a freezing winter's day. The park behind the vicarage was excellent for sledging and the snow would build up at the top and make giant snow drifts to jump in. On Accension Day the whole school would walk to church in our Sunday best for the service and we would be given a momento of the day. If it was dry enough we would walk across the fields and down through the blue bell wood. Harvest Festival would be celebrated the same and we would deliver baskets of food around the village. At Christmas was the Carol Service in the church and the school play in the Village Hall. We would spend weeks making things and everybody in the school had a part to play. We often went on nature walks around the village and we would catch tadpoles and learn about the different birds. The Primary School left lasting happy memories.