April 23, 2024:
Rye is an English town near the coast in East Sussex. In the center, cobbled lanes like Mermaid Street and High Street are lined with medieval, half-timbered houses, boutique shops, galleries, and restaurants/inns/pubs. A busy seaport village for hundreds of years, Rye was frozen in time as silt built up and the sea retreated in the 16th and 17th centuries, leaving only a skinny waterway to remind it of better days.The redbrick Lamb House was once owned by writer Henry James. Nearby, the tower of the Norman St. Mary’s Church overlooks the town. The 14th-century Ypres Tower, which formed part of Rye’s defences, is now the Rye Castle Museum, with paintings and displays on local history.
Getting There: We drove to Rye from Sissinghurst Castle Gardens, a 33-minute drive, and parked at the northeastern part of town at the Rope Street Car Park (24 Rope Walk, Rye TN31 7NA) – £2.50 for 2 hours. Our accommodation in Rye was the The Lookout, a short walk from the car park (offered on-stie parking). There are several pay car parks around the perimeter of the town (it is recommended not to drive in the town, due to the narrow and hilly cobblestone streets).
Our Accommodation – The Lookout – Rye
Walking Tour of Rye:
We spent a couple of hours touring the town in a counter-clockwise direction, starting at Landgate, following High Street to The Mint, then climbing the hill of Mermaid Street to the Lamb House and St. Mary’s Church, touring the Rye Castle Museum and then completing our circle of the town at our accommodation, The Lookout (by the Rope Street Car Park/Landgate).
The Grapevine Champagne & Jazz Bar – We had planned to enjoy the evening at The Grapevine Champagne & Jazz Bar right around the corner from our accommodation, but decided not to since they didn’t have live music on the Tuesday night we arrived. Rye’s cozy wine and jazz bar has live entertainment five days a week (every Wednesday to Sunday – though the sign outside says seven days a week) – call ahead +44 1797 227 531 or visit their website https://thegrapevinerye.com/ to determine what live entertainment is scheduled. Open Monday – Wednesday, 6 pm – 1 am; Thursday, 4 pm – 1 am; Friday – Sunday, 12 pm – 1 am; you must book a table in advance when they have live music or you will be turned away; 1 Conduit Hill, Rye TN31 7LE.
The Grapevine Wine & Jazz Bar – Photos: https://thegrapevinebar.co.uk/
Exterior of The Grapevine Champagne and Jazz Bar
Our Rye Walk – we skipped the Rye Heritage Centre
Map of Rye located in the Rope Street Car Park
Landgate – At Tower Street and Hilder’s Cliff, this gate, built in the 14th century, is the old survivor of the four town’s gates; see www.visitryebay.com/shopping/landgate/. The Landgate was the last of two gates that were built to defend Rye from invading forces, the other the Strandgate which disappeared a long time ago.
Landgate
High Street/The Mint – This is Rye’s main shopping street, lined with restaurants, coffee shops, boutiques and curiosity shops.
High Street/The Mint
Standard Inn – Located on High Street (High St, Rye TN31 7EN) is the famous Standard Inn (some say the “best pub in Southeast England”), where we had dinner the night of our arrival (we had excellent fish pies and generously poured drinks) – recommended by Rick Steves. The Kitchen is open Monday–Saturday, 12 noon to 2:45 pm; 6 pm to 9 pm; closed Sunday; no Kitchen reservations taken; first come-first served. The Pub is open Monday-Saturday, 12 noon to 9 pm; closed Sunday; www.thestandardinnrye.co.uk/).
The Standard Inn
Rye Heritage Centre – We skipped the next part of our self-guided walking tour, the Rye Heritage Centre, with exhibits and a model of the town. The Centre includes a visitor information center (TI), town audio-guide (75 minutes), an impressive scale-model of the town (20-minute sound and light show – £4.50); open Tuesday, 12:30 pm – 4:30 pm, free; Strand Quay/A-259; +44 1797 226 696; www.ryeheritage.co.uk.
Rye Heritage Centre town model –
Photo: https://www.visit1066country.com/things-to-do/the-story-of-rye-at-rye-heritage-centre-p50593
Mermaid Street – Instead of touring the Rye Heritage Centre, when we reached the end of The Mint, we turned left and headed uphill on the cobblestoned Mermaid Street.
Walking up the cobblestone Mermaid Street
The House with Two Front Doors – Soon we saw on our right, the aptly named “House with Two Front Doors”. Now a bed and breakfast, The “House with Two Front Doors” was built in the 15th century. Its stunning low beams are from ships of that time… the squeaky doors and creaky floors fill every room full of the character you would expect to find in a house centuries old.
The House with Two Front Doors
Interior – “House with Two Front Doors”
Mermaid Inn – Continuing up the steep hill, we then reached the half-timbered, ivy-covered Mermaid Inn. We didn’t stop, though their website invites you to tour the rebuilt 1420 inn after the original burned down (the cellars date from 1156). Experience the sloping ceilings, creaking floorboards and numerous staircases. Photos of recent celebrity customers are posted just inside the door.
The Mermaid Inn
From the Mermaid Inn’s website : “Experience a drink in the Giant’s Fireplace Bar and imagine how the Hawkhurst Gang, local smugglers in the 1730s and 1740s, caroused in the bar. Can you see the secret passageway entrance?”
Giant’s Fireplace Bar
“Relax in one of the two lounges. Enjoy the comfort and atmosphere of Dr Syn’s Lounge and look for the wall carvings of the Catholic priests fleeing to the continent at the time of the Reformation. The Small Lounge overlooks the cobbles of Mermaid Street, which was once the main route to the anchorage in Rye in years gone by.”
Dr. Syn’s Lounge
The Small Lounge
The National Trust Lamb House – After passing the Mermaid Inn, we saw the Lamb House on our right. Henry James, the famous author, lived and worked in this house. We toured the house and the garden. Highlights include the house; the White Parlour, with a historic exhibition space currently displaying 300 years of history at Lamb House; and the walled garden and vegetable garden. Cost and Hours – £8.50 – house and garden; open Friday – Tuesday (closed Wednesday, Thursday) 11 am – 5 pm; West Street; +44 1797 222 909; www.nationaltrust.org.uk/lamb-house.
The Lamb House
Signs outside Lamb House
The Green Parlour
The White Parlour – Exhibits on the Lamb House and Henry James
Other rooms in the Lamb House
Lamb House garden
Sign outside the house about the writer Henry James
Church of St. Mary the Virgin – Just pass the Lamb House, we reached Church Square, where the Church of St. Mary the Virgin is located.
Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Interior – Church of St. Mary the Virgin
Free pamphlet for the interior, 84-step tower; adjoining old cemetery, red-brick water tower built in 1735 (see below – we saw this water tower after the Rye Castle Museum); the oldest working clock in England (c. 1561), still working with its original pendulum, which swings above your head as you enter; open daily, except Sunday, 9:15 am – 5:15 pm; free; +44 1797 222 318; www.ryeparishchurch.org.uk. The Visitor Centre stocks a good range of postcards, Christian greetings cards, prayer cards, books, gifts and Christian jewelry.
Entrance to St. Mary’s Church
Oldest working clock in England (c. 1561) over the entrance
For £4 you can climb up into the bell tower and up and out onto the roof. The view is great, but getting there is not good for claustrophobic people (we didn’t go – Nancy is claustrophobic).
Old Cemetery – Next to the church is an old cemetery. The churchyard at St. Mary’s is closed to burials and has been for 170 years. Burials now take place in Rye Cemetery.
Touring the Old Cemetery
Murder of Allen Grebel – In 1742 the churchyard was the site of a crime. The butcher John Breeds (aka Breads) accidentally murdered Allen Grebell instead of the mayor he really intended to kill. John Breeds was hanged and gibbeted. The mayor actually presided over his trial. His skull, which is the only remains left of him (the murderer’s body was exposed in the cage for many years on Gibbet Marsh, the remainder of the bones being removed by animals or piecemeal by superstitious persons in the belief that the drinking of their infusion in water was a cure for rheumatism), was brought to the town hall and remains there in the loft.
John Breeds’ original skull and gibbet in the Rye Council Town Hall loft (attic)
Both (John Breeds and Allen Grebell) are still said to haunt the churchyard (see below – at Rye Castle Museum, there is a replica of John Breeds’ skeleton and gibbet).
Old Stone House (Friars of the Sack) – Below the church graveyard (at #40 Church Square), this house comprises the west wing of the premises occupied by the Friars of the Sack, built in 1263, dissolved in 1307 and burnt out by the French in 1377. It was largely modernized in 1869.
Old Stone House – Friars of the Sack
Nearby is the old police station…
Old police building
Ypres Tower – Rye Castle Museum – The former Ypres tower, now converted into a museum, contains three flowers of artifacts including a replica of the gibbet where the murderer John Breeds (aka Breads) was hung and his body left in the gibbet on the marsh.
Rye Castle Museum
Replica of gibbet John Breeds was hanged in (Rye Castle Museum)
Sign about the replica gibbet – Rye Castle Museum
The museum contains displays on medieval warfare, smuggling, shipbuilding, the Cinque Ports Volunteers, and other aspects of the history of the town. Cost & Hours – 3 East Street; open daily, 10:30 am – 5 pm; last entrance 4:30 pm; £5.00; +44 1797 226 728; www.ryemuseum.co.uk.
Rye Castle Museum
Exploring the artifacts of the Rye Castle Museum
As well as a model showing the changes to the Romney Marsh coastline and the defenses against Napoleon, there is a balcony with extensive views across of the river Rother and across the Marsh.
View from the Rye Castle Museum balcony
The castle includes an outdoor prison exercise yard with downward-pointed jagged metal spikes to deter thought of escape. It is known that there was a prison in Rye in 1256/57, as two couples were held there awaiting trial for murder. For 400 years the castle/Badding’s/Ypres Tower served as the town jail, housing vagabonds, vagrants, debtors, army deserters, murderers, ‘witches’, smuggler’s, pressed men (those taken by force for the navy or army), and those awaiting execution. Penalties included being hanged, burnt at the stake (rare), whipped or fined. Later came transportation to penal colonies, such as Australia. The south-west cell is reputed as having been padded for violent or disturbed prisoners.
Men, women and children were locked up together in the turret chambers. Conditions were harsh: prisoners slept on the floor which was covered in straw and was filthy as there were no toilet facilities; they were restrained with leg and body irons; and they had very little to eat, bread, beer and water being the only sustenance. There was little in the way of activities to pass the time.
The freestanding women’s prison tower was built in 1837 – before that, female prisoners – often prostitutes – were simply thrown in with the male ones. Towers like this gave female prisoners a safer space to serve out their sentences.
Women’s Prison Tower and medieval herb garden
Below the Ypres Tower/Rye Castle Museum are gun gardens, with cannons and cannonballs.
Gun Gardens – Rye Castle Museum
Outside the Rye Castle Museum is the Rye Pillory – used to shame thiefs and other criminals. The Rye Pillory was last used in 1813 when a publican was put in it for aiding the escape of General Philippon, a French prisoner of war. The pillory was placed on the beach, and the face of the culprit, when undergoing punishment, turned to the coast of France.
Rye Castle Museum – pillory
We now returned to Church Square, keeping the church on our left…
Waked uphill to Church Square with the church on our left
Old Water Tower – We next passed the old water tower next to the church, made of red brick, built in 1735.
Old red brick water tower
Rye Town Council Hall – Continuing around Church Square, we reached Rye Town Council Hall. Designed by Andrews Jelfe and built in 1742, the present Rye Town Hall 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). Rye Town Hall is considered to be Andrews Jelfe’s most important work as an architect.
Rye Town Council Hall
We walked on Market Street at it curves around to the left and becomes East St. We turned right onto High Street and merged left onto East Cliff. The Lookout Rye (our accommodation) was on the left. Our walking tour of Rye is over.
View of Rye from The Lookout at night