A Trip to and Walk around Rye...

Entering Rye by one of the gates, after having a wander towards Rye Harbour and around the town. Originally a seaside town, medieval Rye is now nearly 2 miles from the coast following storms and silt being brought in from the Channel, its current position inland was consolidated by the 16th century. Rye, earlier officially a 'limb' of Hastings, became one of the Cinque Ports (website) in 1336; for more details of the history of Rye go to the Historic UK website.

Walking up towards the church I passed the Grade I listed 13th century Ypres Tower, now one of the 2 sites of the Rye Castle Museum (Visit 1066 Country website).

At the top of the hill, and which can be seen from miles around, is the 12th century St Mary's Church (website), which is definitely worth a look around inside. I particular like the Victorian stained glass Burne-Jones window (member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and good friend of the Arts & Crafts Movement's William Morris).

Around the corner from the church, and down a few yards in Mermaid Street TN31 7EY, is the Mermaid Inn (website), originally a 12th century inn (cellar dates from 1156), but rebuilt in 1420 following it being burnt to the ground by French raiders in 1377, indeed Rye, like Hastings, saw many raids in those days! It's a cosy hotel and public house, with low ceilings, beams, and nooks and crannies. Their own beer (brewed for them by Young's I was told, their Bitter rebadged?) was a nice easy to drink 3.7% session ale, and, although I'd had a late breakfast, so didn't eat here, the food did look very good!

Again, just around the corner, and back up round towards the church, and you reach the Grade II listed 18th century Lamb House in West Street TN31 7ES (website). Lamb House is a writers museum and now run by the National Trust, and was once the home of writer Henry James (1897 to 1914).

Around the back of the church is this Grade II listed brick cistern and tower that was built to hold water pumped up from my final destination, down Conduit Hill...

Yes, down the hill, and just a few minutes away from the railway station, in Tower Street, and on the corner with Rope Walk TN31 7NT, is the Rye Waterworks micropub, where I enjoyed beer, good company, and a cracking locally made Scotch Egg. My alter ego and his blog describes this visit in greater depth, cheers! 😉

Great afternoon for us 👍

Hastings to Rye Walk - Yesterday

My brother and I left Hastings at a reasonable time early-ish yesterday morning, with the aim of missing as much of the forecast rain as possible, and walked towards Rye with the wind behind us for most of they way! The photograph above was taken looking back over Fairlight Glen, a popular place to paint in the 19th century, particularly by Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (blog).

Once we'd completed crossing Hastings Country Park (blog) and cliffs, we descended to Pett Level, where we had a bite to eat, we carried on along The Royal Military Canal (website), constructed from Hythe to Pett to defend against the perceived threat of Napoleon in the early 19th century. We continued along by the canal to Winchelsea, where we walked up to the road and reached the 13th century New Gate (website).

Winchelsea's "New Gate"

Proud parents & their 4 teenagers

We walked through and then around the North of Winchelsea, returning to the wetlands, where we were followed by rain for the last 2 miles of our walk. Okay, we had damp backs to our legs, but we did miss the worst of the rain, mostly!

So, we arrived in Rye and walked up the interesting old streets to St Mary's Church...

Once up at the top of the hill and in St Mary's Church, I loved the stained glass window of another Pre-Raphaelite artist (1891), and best friend of Arts & Crafts Movement hero of mine William Morris, that is Edward Burne-Jones, an aspect of which was featured on the 2009 Christmas 90p postage stamp (St Mary's website).

We then had a pint each at The Queen's Head and caught the train home soon after as it was hectic in Rye, the walk there took about 4 hours, but we were back in Hastings in not much more than 20 minutes!