Rye Harbour SSSI

RNLB Mary Stanford (ON 661) was a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) Liverpool-class pulling and sailing type lifeboat stationed in Rye Harbour. On 15 November 1928 the Mary Stanford capsized, drowning the entire crew of 17. The lifeboat was launched in a south-west gale with heavy rain squalls and heavy seas to the vessel Alice of Riga. News was received that the crew of the Alice had been rescued by another vessel and the recall signal was fired three times. Apparently, the lifeboat crew had not seen it. As the lifeboat finally came back into harbour she was seen to capsize and the whole of the crew perished.

Rye Harbour is a village located on the East Sussex coast in southeast England, near the estuary of the River Rother: it is part of the civil parish of Icklesham and the Rother district. Rye Harbour is located some two miles (3.2 km) downstream of the town of Rye. The River Rother from Rye seawards, and including the village of Rye Harbour, is under the control of the Environment Agency. At the village itself there are yacht moorings; a small fishing fleet (coded RX: Rye SusseX); some commercial shipping; and a long-established lifeboat station. There is also a holiday village called Rye Harbour Holiday Park alongside the village itself.An industrial estate straddles the road to Rye Harbour from Rye. It contains warehousing, light manufacturing and an oil refinery.The village community has set up a pictorial website, aimed at promoting its history.

Rye Harbour LNR is a 325.4-hectare (804-acre) local nature reserve in Rye in East Sussex. The site is part of the 465-hectare (1,150-acre) nature reserve managed by the Sussex Wildlife Trust. It is also part of Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay Ramsar site, Special Protection Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest and Dungeness Special Area of Conservation.This large reserve has diverse coastal habitats, including saltmarsh, shingle, reedbeds, saline lagoons, grazing marsh and flooded gravel pits. More than 280 species of birds have been recorded, out of which 90 breed on the site. There are more than 450 flowering plant species, including 27 which are scarce and two which are endangered, least lettuce and stinking hawksbeard.

The River Rother flows for 35 miles (56 km) through the English counties of East Sussex and Kent. Its source is near Rotherfield in East Sussex, and its mouth is on Rye Bay, part of the English Channel. Prior to 1287, its mouth was further to the east at New Romney, but it changed its course after a great storm blocked its exit to the sea. It was known as the Limen until the sixteenth century. For the final 14 miles (23 km), the river bed is below the high tide level, and Scots Float sluice is used to control levels. It prevents salt water entering the river system at high tides, and retains water in the river during the summer months to ensure the health of the surrounding marsh habitat. Below the sluice, the river is tidal for 3.7 miles (6.0 km). The river has been used for navigation since Roman times, and is still navigable by small boats as far as Bodiam Castle. It flowed in a loop around the northern edge of the Isle of Oxney until 1635, when it was diverted along the southern edge. Scots Float Sluice was built before 1723, when the engineer John Reynolds made repairs to it, and later extended it, to try to keep the channel clear of silting, but it was criticised by John Rennie in 1804, as it was inconvenient to shipping. The river became part of a defensive line to protect England from the threat of invasion by the French in the early 1800s, when its lower section and part of the River Brede formed a link between the two halves of the Royal Military Canal. Scots Float Sluice was again rebuilt in 1844. Some 31 square miles (80 km2) of the valley were inundated by floodwater in 1960, which resulted in the Rother Area Drainage Improvement Scheme being implemented between 1966 and 1980. The river banks were raised, and 20 pumping stations were installed. The river has been managed by a number of bodies, including the Rother Levels Commissioners of Sewers, the Rye Harbour Commissioners, and the Board of Conservators for the River Rother. After the passing of the Land Drainage Act 1930, it was managed by the Rother and Jury's Gut Catchment Board, the Kent River Board, the Kent and Sussex River Authorities, the National Rivers Authority and finally the Environment Agency. It is unusual, in that while it is under the jurisdiction of the Environment Agency, it has been a free river since 1826, and so no licence is required to use it. Management of the levels adjacent to the river is undertaken by the Romney Marshes Area Internal Drainage Board. The Rother passes by or near the villages of Etchingham, Robertsbridge, Bodiam, Northiam, and Wittersham.

The Rye and Camber Tramway was an English railway in East Sussex. It was of 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge, relatively unusual amongst British narrow gauge railways. It operated from 1895 until 1939, connecting Rye to the coast. It was about 1+3⁄4 miles (2.8 km) in length, and had three stations - Rye, Golf Links and Camber Sands. It operated mainly to transport golfers to the golf links and holidaymakers to the coastal dunes.

Camber Castle, also known formerly as Winchelsea Castle, is a 16th-century Device Fort, built near Rye by King Henry VIII to protect the Sussex coast of England against French attack. The first fortification on the site was a small, round artillery tower, constructed by Henry between 1512 and 1514, overlooking the Camber anchorage and the entrance to Rye Harbour. In 1539, increasing tensions with France encouraged Henry to rethink his coastal defence plans, and Camber Castle was rebuilt and extended over the next year under the direction of the Moravian engineer, Stefan von Haschenperg. The results were considered unsatisfactory and further work was carried out from 1542 to 1543, at great expense, to rectify the problems. The result was a large, concentric artillery fort, with a central keep, surrounded by four circular bastions and a circular entrance bastion, built from stone and brick. The finished castle was initially equipped with 28 brass and iron artillery guns and a garrison of 28 men, commanded by a captain. It may have seen service in 1545 when a French fleet attacked the coast, but its operational value was short lived. The Camber and the surrounding harbours began to silt up, becoming unusable by shipping, and the coastline receded away from the fort, eventually placing it well inland. Furthermore, the fort had been superseded by newer European military designs even before it had been completed, and peace with France later in the century removed much of the requirement for the fort. The castle still remained operational up until 1637, when it was closed by King Charles I. With the outbreak of civil war in 1642, much of the fortification was dismantled by Parliamentary forces to prevent it being used by the Royalists. The ruins became a popular spot for picnics in the 18th and 19th centuries, and was painted by J. M. W. Turner. Plans to redevelop the castle as a Martello tower or as a clubhouse for a local golf course came to nothing, although the property was used in the Second World War, probably as an early warning site. Archaeological interest in the fort increased after the war and in 1967 it was taken into the guardianship of the state, the property being bought from the private owners in 1977. It is now operated by English Heritage, who reopened it to visitors after an extensive programme of conservation between 1968 and 1994. The fort is an unusual example of an unmodified Device Fort and is protected under UK law as a Grade I listed building.

Rye railway station was a terminal station on the Rye and Camber Tramway in East Sussex, connecting Rye to Camber. Although the station was close to the Ashford – Hastings line (now the Marshlink Line), it did not connect to it or have direct access to the main Rye railway station. It was sited immediately east of the River Rother outside the town, next to the Guldeford Road (now the A259).The station first opened on 13 July 1895 with a 1+3⁄4-mile (2.8 km) section of the tramway providing access to the local golf links. A further 1⁄2-mile (0.80 km) extension to Camber Sands opened on 13 July 1908. Increasing competition of bus services led to the line's decline and the station closed in 1939.

Rye Castle, also known as Ypres Tower, was built in the 13th or 14th centuries, and is situated in Rye, East Sussex, England. It is a Grade I listed building and has been scheduled as an ancient monument.

The Monk Bretton Bridge is a road bridge over the River Rother in Rye, East Sussex. It carries the A259 road, a major road between Folkestone and Hastings, and is the most downstream crossing of the river. The area around the river beyond this resembles saltmarsh compared to that further upstream.The bridge was planned as a replacement for a ferry over the river that carried fisherman traffic from Camber and East Guldeford to the fish market at Rye. It opened on 25 April 1893 at a cost of £3,160 (£373,000 as of 2021) and was named after John George Dodson, 1st Baron Monk Bretton. The bridge was constructed by a deck supported on two sets of iron piles. It was later reinforced with concrete.The Rye and Camber Tramway opened in 1895, with the Rye station located east of the River Rother. It did not connect to the main railway line (now the Marshlink line); instead passengers travelled between the two stations via the Monk Bretton Bridge.The bridge was closed in October 2007 for refurbishment, involving lengthy detours.

The River Tillingham flows through the English county of East Sussex. It meets the River Brede and the eastern River Rother near the town of Rye. A navigable sluice controlled the entrance to the river between 1786 and 1928, when it was replaced by a vertical lifting gate which was not navigable. The river provided water power to operate the bellows of an iron works at Beckley Furnace, used to make cannons for the Royal Navy between 1578 and 1770, when it became uneconomic, and a water mill which replaced it, until that burnt down in 1909. The lower reaches supported a thriving shipbuilding industry from the early nineteenth century onwards, and although on a smaller scale, was still doing so in 2000.

East Guldeford is a village and civil parish in the Rother district of East Sussex, England. The village is located one mile (1.6 km) east of Rye on the A259 road. The parish is controlled by a parish meeting. It is in the civil parish of Playden. The parish church is dedicated to St Mary. It was consecrated in 1505.

St Mary's Church, Rye is the Anglican parish church of the civil parish of Rye in East Sussex. Since 1951 it is a Grade I listed building because of its architectural and historical interest.