April 2025
The Friends were really grateful to receive a £190 donation from “Ethel Loves Me” in Rye.
Then on 20th March the Chair, Jacqui Stanford gave the Mary Stanford Disaster Talk to the lovely ladies of Burwash “Not So Young Club” at their Village Hall. The talk covered the history of Rye Harbour, the 1928 disaster, the crew and the events that took place leading up to the disaster, and the events that followed. The Chair also explained what the charity plan to do going forward. The presentation was very well received by everyone and a £60 donation to the charity was generously made.
Also we have recently appointed a new Trustee, Martin Geldart, who has expertise in web design and social media management and he has very kindly offered to update our website and Facebook pages. Watch this space!
January 2025
Cllr Stanford who is a member of Harbour of Rye Advisory Committee is told at a meeting that the Environment Agency have rock armour that they are willing for us to use to protect the lifeboat house – this is great news because this is expensive material. We are hoping that this will help the EA be able to reduce the amount of time they spend replenishing the shingle there.
We contact Natural England to organise a meeting at the boathouse to discuss being able to get this work done as they have to give their permission.
Cllr Stanford has a meeting with a retired Civil Engineer who may be willing to take over the reins from Brian Morton Decd. He seems interested, and will think about committing. He is given a copy of Brian’s Restoration Plan and hopefully will be keen to join us. Doing the restoration work in bite sized pieces is discussed to get the project started.
Cllr Stanford and Jenner Sands meet with Natural England and the EA at the boathouse. The erosion of the beach and rock amour is discussed and the falling into the sea of the boathouse. They are reminded by Cllr Stanford that it is Grade II Listed and that the land is SSSI and the road is the emergency road from Rye Harbour to Winchelsea Beach as RH is a cul de sac. The EA explain they move the shingle in trucks on the road and are asked by NE what they would do if the road was gone. They confirm the shingle would have been trucked along Harbour Road, onto the A259 and then Sea Road at Winchelsea Beach. NE say they need to go away and write a report with help of the EA and revert.
Following the meeting with NE, they have advised that we may need planning approval and an MMO Licence – we are currently researching.
The Rye Variations had planned on doing another fundraising concert in November 2024 following the success of last year’s event with massive thanks due to Andi Croft for organising. Due to his work commitments this has been postponed until hopefully Spring 2025. Watch this space.
The Discovery Centre held an event on the Mary Stanford and following that event, they very kindly donated £200 to the Charity. The Friends would like to say a big thank you to the Sussex Wildlife Trust for this kind donation.