To browse Academia. There are wonderful views of Romney Marsh and the English Channel. There is an ancient grammar school, a stone chapel on Conduit Hill, a wealth of inns, medieval and Tudor timber-framed dwellings and other houses with brick facades. How did this happen? But then Rye entered a period of economic stagnation which saw the disappearance of many trades and crafts which had supported the residents and supplied mariners calling at the port.
A royal official, Sir Richard Guldeford, sailed from Rye on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in , and until the Reformation the townsfolk beautified the church and supported its chantries. Rye became a prosperous, if crowded, town and its Protestant sympathies and close links to the Continent ensured the arrival of many Huguenot refugees. For over a century Rye continued as the major port in south-east England but as its own harbour silted it was finally eclipsed by Dover in the seventeenth century.
Integral to the identity of the Ancient town of Rye are its cobblestones. Known locally as boulders, they are used on streets, lanes, pavements, forecourts and private curtilages. Cobblestones have been sourced from varying places including rivers, quarries, the foreshore and ship ballasts. Many of the current cobbled streets and lanes are Grade II listed, due to their archaeological and historic importance; and aesthetic value.
Rye itself is a conservation area. Over the centuries, paths and lanes have appeared and disappeared. This is due to a combination of economic and natural forces, possibly war. Sections of cobblestone paths have been discovered in at least two previous excavations. Many of the streets and lanes are Norman. It is unclear when cobblestones were first used in Rye.
All charters and old records were lost near the time of c By it appears cobblestones were being used 'only where people walk more leisurely.
