A Winters Day Trip To Rye

Winchelsea Beach

We have decided to get out a bit more this year and go and see places we have not been to before or for a while.

I plotted a route through the Kent and East Sussex back lanes down to Winchelsea Beach, along the coast road through to Rye Harbour and into Rye itself. I had planned to stop at Mary Stanford Lifeboat Station and eat our packed lunch on the beach.

When we got to Winchelsea Beach, we discovered that the coast road is now shut, except for access, as it forms part of Rye Nature Reserve. Great for a long beach walk, but that wasn't in our plan for this day trip.

So we ate our lunch on the beach at Winchelsea. There were a couple of other people around waling dogs and doing yoga type things but it was really quiet. Last time I was here was in the early 1970's with the family and cousins and there were swarms of people and swarms of wasps – that's all we remember about that trip, wasps! There were no wasps this time but there was a flock of about 20 small seabirds.

Sandlings and Small Auks on the beach at Winchelsea Beach with a bright shimmering sea behind them.

It took me a while to identify them but confirmed when I got home that they were Sandlings and Small Auks. Perched on the first ridge of wave swept pebbles, about two foot from the seas edge, they were sunbathing. It was a glorious sunny winters day without out a cloud in the sky. Out of the sun though it was quite cold in the gentle breeze.

A Sandlings and a Small Auk share the beach together on the pebbles at Winchelsea Beach with a gently lapping sea behind them.

Rye Harbour

I did consider walking to Rye Harbour, about an hour, and then onto Rye, 50 mins more, but it was the walk back that put me off! So after lunch we left the beach and drove to Rye harbour, parking next to Martello Tower 28. The tide was very high, must have been a spring tide, so the river Rother was full and bristling at the banks.

A half sunken hulk of an old wooden fishing trawler at Rye harbour.

We popped into the William The Conqueror pub for a beverage. Not had a pint of Shepherd Neame's Master brew for a while so that was good. Got chatting to a couple of people who, thinking we might be locals, asked us if the height of the tide was exceptional – which, we all decided, it was.

The town of Rye

Rye East Gate - a medieval turretted stone fortification that mostly kept the French out.

From there we drove into Rye itself. I used to come here with the family when I was young and have a lot of fond memories of the place. Little has changed, though I could not find the shop that had a model of the Battle of Rorke's Drift in a side window. I am sure it was not Soldiers of Rye as that didn't start up until 1987 and this was back in the 1970's. This a very unspoilt small town and oozes a unique character as it is built on a small hill and has stunning views of Romney Marsh, the English Channel and the surrounding countryside.

We parked down in the market, which I remember being full of sheep and cattle many years ago, and wandered up into the town for a good look around. Rye bookshop is still there, but now part of Waterstones, and this is where I bought my first Dr Syn book as a child. Happily I found the full set of Inspector Sonny Russell mystery books by my friend Chris O'Donoghue, good to see them supporting a local author.

The building in Rye have some wonderful whimsical quirks you don't find in modern housing stock. A small bay window high on the corner of a house in Rye giving great views from a bedroom across the Romney Marsh to the north.

A spectacular round corner bay window on a house in Rye..

Lamb House

We chanced upon Lamb House, a National Trust property, and ear marked it for another visit until we realised it was actually open so spent the next hour exploring it and the secluded garden. Home of Henry James, the author, and later E.F Benson, also an author, and neither of whom I remeber reading so I must rectify that at some point.

View from upstairs at Lamb House toward the Chursh.