File:Adam's illustrated guide to Rye (with map) - Winchelsea, Northiam, Camben-on-Sea, and all places of interest in the neighbourhood (1900) (14592282887).jpg

Identifier: adamsillustrated00ryea (find matches)
Title: Adam's illustrated guide to Rye (with map) : Winchelsea, Northiam, Camben-on-Sea, and all places of interest in the neighbourhood
Year: 1900 (1900s)
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Publisher: Rye : Adams
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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d into chambers for shot, shell, powder, and othermiscellaneous stores. The towers are built principally ofbrick, the walls varying from six to nine feet in thickness,being much thicker seawards than towards the land. Animmense central pillar, around which a variety of smallarms are hung, supports a bomb-proof roof, the circularwall is suflicientlv high to form a parapet, and on thecircular space within was a gun of large calibre, workingon a traversing platform so as to point in any direction ;the doorways, always on the land side, are about ten feetfrom the ground ; the steps can be drawn up inside, wherea moat exists ; the entrance is by a swing bridge. Thetowers were about half-a-mile apart, and cost in buildingfrom ;^i0,000 to ;^2o,ooo each. They are now altogetherobsolete for defensive purposes. The Royal Military Canal Runs from Cliff End, Rett, to Hythe, a distance of 23miles, and is intersected by the River Rother. It wasconstructed in 1804, as a means of defence, and for the
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GUIDE TO RYE. conveyance of troops and stores, there being but very fewroads in those days. A raised bank is carried along itseaward, as a cover for musketeers. Ihe line is purposelymade in a series of zigzags, each angle of the bank beingintended to be defended by cannon. OLD HOUSES. When the town was fortified, in the middle of thefourteenth century, and for many years after, it is probablethat the Mermaid and West Streets contained the resi-dences of the principal inhabitants of the town ; for thoughthe steepness of the Strand Hill, and the ruggedness of thepavement in the former, would militate against such a con-clusion in the present day, yet these objections would notexist at a period when carriages were but little used, andwhen all journeys were performed, even by ladies, on horse-back. A very cursory view will suffice to convince anyonethat the older class of houses was built on a much largerscale than those of the present day, and for which two verysatisfactory reasons may b

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