Review: Tudor Wye by Dr Graham Mayhew

This book is a notable addition to the literature of Romney Marsh and its ports. Rye is exceptionally fortunate in its wealth of Corporation records and Dr. Mayhew, assisted by members of his evening class and encouraged by the people of Rye, has used them to excellent advantage. He writes about a town which in wealth ranged 20th or better among Tudor provincial towns and which numbered in its heyday at feast 4,000 and perhaps closer to 5,000 inhabitants.

Successive chapters discuss Protestantism, administration, social geography as a reflection of occupation structure, housing, crime, and trade and decline, establishing a chronological sequence whenever possible. The whole is supported by abundant source notes, a generous provision of tables in the text and six appendices. In all these topics the reader may find himself absorbed by fascinating detail, but the book's major theme, which is the rise and subsequent spectacular fall of Rye's good fortune, also repays attention. Early in the century, Rye had gained in trade at the expense of Winchelsea, thanks to silting in the Winchelsea channel. Its decline in the 1580s and 90s was the outcome of a complex chain of events which the author is at pains to unravel.

Fishing was always the basis of Rye's wealth. In 1565, we learn, it was home port to some 50 fishing boats and 13 larger vessels; fishermen and mariners numbered nearly 800. In 1576, a third of the town's assessed wealth was accounted for by ratepayers engaged in fishing and its allied trades, while merchants, some of whom were fish wholesalers, provided a further 16%. From Rye, daily trains of pack animals carried fish to London. Much of the return traffic consisted of bales of cloth which fed Rye's export trade to France. Yet, from the 1580s, progressively fewer vessels operated out of Rye, sales of fish fell, and so did the town's wealth. By the end of the century only 149 seamen appear in the Rye muster rolls. Where then had the boats gone and what ports gained by Rye's loss? What had happened?

Deterioration of the harbour by silting is only part of the answer and Dr. Mayhew sees a wider perspective. Rye's prosperity derived from its geographical setting, and this in turn meant that it depended upon patterns of trading between England and the Continent. Political developments on both sides of the Channel could and did disrupt these patterns and Rye was correspondingly vulnerable, to the point of losing its power of recovery. It is a theme which can be recognised in other aspects of Marsh history.

Eleanor Vollans

Graham Mayhew : Tudor Rye : 1987, Falmer Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex. Printed by Delta Press, Hove.