It was Agatha Crusty who penned the celebrated crime novel as illustrated above. From memory (dodgy as ever) the rye in a pocket was a crucial link for the old lady from St Mary Mead as she brilliantly solved the intricate crime.
The line comes from a gruesome children's "nursery" rhyme ...
... which, to bring joy to the kiddies, involves one of said blackbirds pecking off the nose of a hard working kitchen maid.
So many nursery rhymes are horrible; Ring a Ring of Roses is about death from the plague; The Grand Old Duke Of York is about appalling mismanagement of the Kingdom's defence forces (nothing changes!); and as for poor Humpty!
To avoid permanently traumatising the very young, we hardly ever see pictures of Humpty's terminal brokenness. fbb does, however, remember one of a smashed Humpty from his childhood. He disliked the picture and felt sad that no one attempted a repair.
The origins of the rhyme are lost for ever, but two possibilities are suggested. It may have referred to a sudden fall from grace for a politician or a member of the Royalty (so nothing new there, eh?) OR a sombre comment on the dangers of drunkenness (so no change there, eh?).
Bur we digress.
As usual!
Rye us a delightful town in East Sussex (almost in Kent) ...
... sitting at the confluence of three rivers, The Rother (but NOT as in Rotherham!), The Tillingham and The Brede.
The area is partially reclaimed marsh and the name Rye may be derived from an ancient word for an island. Some authorities show it as an island on geological maps.
At the back of fbb's quirky brain function was the idea that Rye was one of the Cinque Ports. Yes, it's French for 'five' but we have to pronounce it "Sink"! It wouldn't do for the Brave British Bulldog breed to submit to johnny foreigner's strange and impenetrable vowel sounds.
Rye wasn't a Cinque Port but it was!
The confederation of Cinque Ports is a historic group of coastal towns in Sussex and Kent. The name is Old French, meaning "five harbours", and alludes to the original five members (Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover and Sandwich). At its peak in the Late Middle Ages, the confederation included over 40 members. There is now a totalof 14 members: five "head ports", two "ancient towns" and seven "limbs".
So here is a list of the most recent "club" membership
Head Ports (The "Five")
- Hastings
- New Romney
- Hythe
- Dover
- Sandwich
Corporate limbs (The Hangers-On)
- Pevensey
- Seaford
- Tenterden
- Lydd
- Folkestone
- Faversham
- Fordwich
- Deal
Ancient Towns (because they were ancient!)
Winston Churchill, Sir Robert Menzies and Her Majesty The Queen Mother were all once holders of the onerous task of being Lord Warden if the Cinque Ports. The main onerous duties were to turn up for the occasional knees-up in the posh clobber.It's a tough job but someone has to do it!
The railway came to Rye in 1851 ...... and in many ways things have not changed greatly over the years.But it was the shelter on Platform 1 ... ... that excited fbb's blogging juices, of that shelter more too follow.
Before we go there, however, there was another railway at Rye.This 3 foot gauge line ran from its own Rye station ...... to Camber Sands, here with diesel haulage ...... via a stop at the golf course. Some of the buildings remain, now repurposed; and most of the track bed can be spotted.The bridge (above with train crossing) is still there, just about.The line closed in 1939. fbb doubts whether it was ever commercially viable!
Back to National Rail platform 1 tomorrow.
Next Posting, Full On, Rye : Tues 23 June
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