The name of Rye is believed to come from the
West Saxon ieg meaning island. Medieval maps show that Rye was originally located on a huge
embayment of the English Channel called the Rye Camber, which provided a safe anchorage and harbour. Probably as early as Roman times, Rye was important as a place of shipment and storage of iron from the Wealden iron industry. Rye, as part of the Saxon Manor of Rameslie, was given to the
Benedictine Abbey of Fécamp in Normandy by King
Æthelred; it was to remain in Norman hands until 1247. The town of Rye is recorded in the 1086
Domesday Book as possessing 189 households, marking it as a significant settlement at the time. The cellars of the Mermaid Inn date from 1156. As one of the two "Antient Townes" (
Winchelsea being the other), Rye was to become a
limb of the
Cinque Ports Confederation by 1189, and subsequently a full member. The protection of the town as one of the Cinque Ports was very important, due to the commerce that trading brought. One of the oldest buildings in Rye is
Ypres Tower, which was built in 1249 as "Baddings Tower", to defend the town from the French, and was later named after its owner, John de Ypres. It is now part of the Rye Museum. Rye received its charter from
King Edward I in 1289, and acquired privileges and tax exemptions in return for ship-service for the crown. The "Landgate" (the only surviving one of four original fortified entrances to Rye) dates from 1329 in the early years of the reign of King
Edward III. It is suitable only for light vehicles. In 2015, some 25 tonnes of pigeon excrement that had built up had to be removed from Landgate Arch for fear of damaging the ancient structure. The
River Rother originally took an easterly course to flow into the sea near what is now
New Romney. However, the violent storms in the 13th century (particularly in 1250 and
1287) cut the town off from the sea, destroyed Old Winchelsea, and changed the course of the Rother. Then the sea and the river combined in about 1375 to destroy the eastern part of the town and ships began use the current area (the Strand) to unload their cargoes. Two years later, the town was sacked and burnt by the French, and it was ordered that the town walls be completed, as a defence against foreign raiders. Rye was considered one of the finest of the Cinque Ports, though constant work had to be done to stop the gradual silting up of the river and the harbour. Also, a conflict arose between the maritime interests and the landowners, who gradually "inned" or reclaimed land from the sea on Romney and Walland Marsh, and thus reduced the tidal flows that were supposed to keep the harbour free of silt.
Acts of Parliament had to be passed to enable the Rother to be kept navigable at all. With the coming of bigger ships and larger deepwater ports, Rye's economy began to decline, and fishing and particularly
smuggling (including
owling, the smuggling of wool) became more important. Imposition of taxes on goods had encouraged smuggling since 1301, but by the end of the 17th century, it became widespread throughout Kent and Sussex, with wool being the largest commodity. When luxury goods were also added, smuggling became a criminal pursuit, and groups – such as the
Hawkhurst Gang who met in
The Mermaid Inn in Rye – turned to murder and were subsequently hanged. In the 1500s, there was
a small Huguenot community at Rye and neighbouring Winchelsea. During the 18th century, an attempt was made to construct a 'New Harbour', popularly known as Smeaton's Harbour, to solve the persistent problem of silting of the medieval port. After legislation – in the form of the '
, Dover Harbour Act 1722, and – was passed to enable the works, construction started in 1723. John Smeaton, the "father of civil engineering," was brought in as a consultant in 1763 to try to fix existing structural and financial failures The Rye Harbour Commission largely ignored his advice, and his full proposals were never executed. The and ' were passed to continue the work. After 63 years of intermittent work, the new harbour finally opened for use in June 1787. It was abandoned four months later, in November 1787; it was formally abandoned by the '
, and focus shifted back to the old harbour. Three further acts of Parliament were passed in the 19th century to discharge the debts of the failed project, and provide for effective management and maintenance of the harbour – the , the and the . In more recent times, the ' (
SI 1976/855) has provided powers for managing the harbour. The Rye Harbour Commissioners were disbanded in 1932, with their responsibilities as
harbour authority being taken over Rother and Jury's Gut Catchment Board. The
catchment board were succeeded in turn by the Kent River Board in 1948, the Kent River Authority in 1965, the
Southern Water Authority in 1974, the
National Rivers Authority in 1989, and then the
Environment Agency in 1996. Since 1803,
lifeboats have been stationed at Rye although the lifeboat station is now at
Rye Harbour about downriver from the town. The worst disaster in RNLI history concerning a single vessel, and in the 20th century, occurred in 1928, when the lifeboat
Mary Stanford sank with all hands; 17 men were drowned. The incident is recorded by a tablet at
Winchelsea church, by the imposing memorial at Rye Harbour Church and by the folk song "The
Mary Stanford of Rye". A new
Mary Stanford was commissioned by the RNLI two years later, and stationed at
Ballycotton on the coast of Ireland. Since 2010, the RNLI has operated an
Atlantic 85-class inshore lifeboat at Rye Harbour. and Rye became the western command centre for the
Royal Military Canal. The canal was planned from
Pett Level to
Hythe, but was not completed until long after the threat had passed. From 1838 to 1889, Rye had its own borough police force. It was a small force, often with just two officers. Rye police frequently had difficulties on
Bonfire night (5 November) and special constables were recruited to help deal with the problems bonfire gangs caused. After amalgamation with the county force in 1889 a new police station was provided in Church Square. In May 1940, during the darkest days of World War II, the Rye fishing fleet was invited to participate in
Operation Dynamo, the seaborne rescue of the stranded British Expeditionary Force at
Dunkirk, but according to one source, refused to do so. However, it appears that at least 7 fishing vessels registered at Rye are listed as taking part in the Dunkirk evacuations. ==Rye Royal==