I have been reading about the extraordinary Benson family; A.C.Benson and E.F.Benson and their father Archbishop of Canterbury Benson. They were a family of writers; I believe AC was said to have written 3000 letters per year and his dairy was eventually 160+ volumes. EF published an autobiography right at the end of his life - 'Final Edition (1940)' and it contains some interesting observations on the town of Rye, where he lived (and was mayor of). Actually the following excerpt is from the introduction by Hugo Vickers:
"The town of Rye stands like a pyramid on an isolated rock, crowned by its fine old church. With Winchelsea it is one of the Cinque Ports, having been added to the original five as far back as the twelth century.
"Rye was in earlier times a haven for smugglers. So many of the innocent looking houses concealed vast intercommunicating cellars, the chimneys contained secret hiding places, stairways were hidden in cupboards."
You see the critical phrase: vast intercommunicating cellars -one of the indicators of loess ground. Its not easy to dig vast intercommunicating cellars; the task is made easier if you are digging in loess. So could it be loess; how is Rye placed as a site for a loess deposit? Actually- not bad. We could have a local loess deposit at Rye- a bit like the local deposit at Pegwell Bay. At Pegwell Bay the River Stour carries loess material out of the eastern parts of the Weald and concentrates it sufficiently for a real loess deposit to form. Loess material which had fallen into the southern part of the Weald was concentrated and transported by the River Rother, and deposited at Rye (or nearby). Most of the loess material which fell into the Weald was eventually transported north by the River Medway and contributed to the brickearth deposits in north Kent, but some fell into the catchments of the Stour, and the Rother, and made separate loess deposits on redeposition.
"The town of Rye stands like a pyramid on an isolated rock, crowned by its fine old church. With Winchelsea it is one of the Cinque Ports, having been added to the original five as far back as the twelth century.
"Rye was in earlier times a haven for smugglers. So many of the innocent looking houses concealed vast intercommunicating cellars, the chimneys contained secret hiding places, stairways were hidden in cupboards."
You see the critical phrase: vast intercommunicating cellars -one of the indicators of loess ground. Its not easy to dig vast intercommunicating cellars; the task is made easier if you are digging in loess. So could it be loess; how is Rye placed as a site for a loess deposit? Actually- not bad. We could have a local loess deposit at Rye- a bit like the local deposit at Pegwell Bay. At Pegwell Bay the River Stour carries loess material out of the eastern parts of the Weald and concentrates it sufficiently for a real loess deposit to form. Loess material which had fallen into the southern part of the Weald was concentrated and transported by the River Rother, and deposited at Rye (or nearby). Most of the loess material which fell into the Weald was eventually transported north by the River Medway and contributed to the brickearth deposits in north Kent, but some fell into the catchments of the Stour, and the Rother, and made separate loess deposits on redeposition.
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