'No doubt the sea will go on receding, and Rye will get farther and farther away from it; but so long as the mouth of the river can be kept open by dredging, Rye can develop as she should develop: into a fine little port with a good fishing fleet and a good commercial trade.

The town should give precedence to industries with a marine bias: either those producing marine goods, such as boat building, or else industries depending on sea-borne trade.

It would be sad if Rye just became a dormitory for rich Londoners, or, worse, just a nondescript mess of 'light industry'. Rye should stand or fall as a port, as she has done for the last twelve hundred years.'

John Seymour (1975)
Rye from the Water's Edge