A car drove into the newly restored and painted main gates into the East Street site of Rye Castle museum on the morning of Monday, September 15, causing substantial damage.
A visitor to the town was reversing into Ockman Lane from East Street but accelerated forward into the gates instead, damaging one of the two gates which fell into the entrance way leaving splintered wood in the surrounding frame. The driver was unhurt and there were no other injuries.
Fortunately, there was someone in the museum office who could get the driver’s details and organise temporary repairs to make the gates safe and secure the site.
The large doors, which are Grade 2 listed, were put in in the mid 1800s when the lower floor of the house front was taken down to give better access to what was a bottling factory. The ironwork is older, from around the 1760s, and was taken from a staircase at the rear of 101 High Street and fitted to the doors in about 1880s / 1890s.
As reported in Rye News, the gates have recently been restored to an exceptional standard by Heritage Decorating which had greatly improved the façade.
The museum at East Street, which was planned to be open every day during Rye Arts Festival, will be closed for the foreseeable future while repairs are undertaken. The castle / Ypres tower site will be open as usual.
Image Credits: Nick McCrae , Juliet Duff .
Oh no! That is awful after looking so good with the new painting. A bit more heritage lost and revenue for the museum presumably.
Very careless of that driver….
I hope the driver will be paying for the repairs.
Let’s hope the driver was insured and there is someone from the Museum who knows how to deal with Motor Insurers!
I agree Andrew hopefully the drivers insurance will cover the cost.
Museum insurers have been notified, loss adjuster has visited and is organising structural engineer and specialist building contractor to visit. Motorists insurers have accepted liability.
I am curious why the police were not called? Surely this is a clear case of driving without due care and attention? It would be interesting to know how the police view this and if further action can/will be taken against the driver considering they’ve admitted responsibility. The driver should count themselves extremely fortunate there were no pedestrians walking past the entrance to the museum, this could have turned out far worse.