It’s almost a year since we went to Rye, and while there, wandering about and exploring we saw this pub called The Ypres Castle Inn; apparently it is known locally as ‘The Wipers’ – which is what British soldiers called the town of Ypres during the 1st World war. However the Ypres here has nothing to do with the Belgian town. The pub was built in about 1640, and has been changed and added to over the centuries and was extended in Victorian times.
The Ypres castle is the only pub with a garden in what is known as the central citadel area of Rye; we didn’t visit the pub, sadly, but as well as being able to sit at your leisure in the garden and enjoy the views of the actual castle and the ships and boats on the River Rother, but there is also a boules pitch if you are feeling slightly energetic. with its working fishing fleet, just yards away.
Around the castle is an area called the Gun Garden and it doesn’t take a genius to guess why; the area was constructed to provide a secure and advantageous place to have defensive armaments in the sixteenth century. Some of the cannon were supposed to be from wrecked Spanish ships.
Once the need for the castle to be defended passed, this are became an actual garden with a bowling green for the citizens, and from what I understand, a rabbit farm! However, war returned the country and the area was taken over as a defensive battery in the eighteenth century.
Now the only shots are in small glasses, and all is peaceful, relaxing and lovely… another pub on my list of those to visit!
http://loiselden.com/2014/04/29/rye/
Lois Elsden 