Rye and District Lions Club assisted the Oliver Curd Trust in its bid to unroll the longest knitted scarf in the world and hence to get it into the Guinness Book of Records. The Trust was set up in memory of nine year Oliver, who died last year of a rare bone disease, to raise money to provide a holiday home for terminally ill children and their parents.
Ladies from Rye and surrounding villages have been knitting sections of the scarf for weeks and it was hoped that the two feet wide scarf would stretch the length of Rye High Street. Tom Baker, who was the fourth Dr. Who from 1974 to 1981, the longest run of a Dr. Who to date, announced the "launch" of unrolling the scarf to a large group of the public, including Rye's Mayor and Town Crier. In the event, the scarf did not stretch the length of only the High Street, but started from below Rye's landmark Landgate arch, up Hilders Cliff, the length of the High Street, down The Mint, across the bottom of Mermaid Street and down The Strand to just past the Ship Inn, where Rye & District Lions meet. It was a grand total of 2,400 feet long.
The scarf will now be cut up and then stitched together into blankets for the needy. Judy Pope, wife of Rye Lion Stuart Pope, was one of the organisers’ of the event and Rye & District Lions helped to roll out the scarf, directed traffic - under or over it - and more importantly rolled the heavy scarf up afterwards.
