Rye: the back story

About Rye: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Brighton Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Rye began as a small fishing community almost surrounded by water; the sea now lies two miles away at Rye Harbour. It became one of the Cinque Ports’ Antient Towns, was burned by the French in 1377, sheltered smugglers in the eighteenth century and later drew writers from Henry James to E F Benson.

Rye rises on its hill above the marsh like a ship run aground: cobbled lanes, tile-hung houses and a church tower at the top, and the sea, which once lapped its walls, two miles away beyond the flat green levels.

An island town

Rye started life as a small fishing community, almost surrounded by water. The sea has since retreated and now lies two miles from the town, at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve. Originally part of the Manor of Rameslie, Rye was promised to the Abbey of Fécamp by Ethelred the Unready after the abbey gave him sanctuary in 1014.

Check opening times and trains on the official sites before you travel.

Walls and gates

When Normandy was lost to the French in 1205, Rye went with it, and it was not reunited with the English Crown until 1247. Its defences were then strengthened with four gates and a wall; the Landgate, the castle and a stretch of wall in Cinque Port Street survive from that time.

A Cinque Port

Under the Charter of the Cinque Ports, the towns of the Kent and Sussex coast provided ships and men for the defence of the realm; in return the Antient Towns of Hastings, Rye and Winchelsea were granted freedom from taxes and customs duties, trading rights and their own courts. The French raided Rye often, and in 1377 almost destroyed it by fire and stole the bells of St Mary’s; a revenge voyage the next year brought them home.

Smugglers

In the eighteenth century smuggling was rife, with contraband stored in old vaulted cellars linked by secret tunnels and passages.

Writers’ Rye

Rye has been home and muse to Henry James, Conrad Aiken, Joseph Conrad, E F Benson, H G Wells and G K Chesterton. Lamb House, now the National Trust’s, was home to Henry James and then to Benson, and was the setting of the BBC’s Mapp and Lucia.

Our advice: climb from the Landgate to St Mary’s, walk Mermaid Street, visit Lamb House, and finish with the wide sands of Camber or the birds of Rye Harbour.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Rye: the back story before you go.