Gated development scuppered

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A bid for a £100,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to pay for repairs to the Pipewell Gate in Winchelsea has been rejected. The news was announced by John Spencer, who is the unelected mayor of the unelected Winchelsea Corporation, the charity that owns the Gate and several other ancient monuments in the town. In a letter to donors, Mr Spencer said that the refusal had not been unexpected. The Corporation has decided not to re-apply to HLF, despite being encouraged to do so by the HLF, as they feel they cannot meet all the donor’s requirements. Instead, the Corporation intends to approach other donors, so far unspecified. In the meantime, they hope to proceed with some essential repairs over the summer to try to stabilise the monument, which was a favourite subject for renowned painter JMW Turner.

A report on the Pipewell Gate was recently commissioned from the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) by the Winchelsea Archaeological Society (WAS), which is one of the donors to the project to repair the structure. SPAB expressed concern over injuries inflicted on the Gate by vehicles on the A259 and the real possibility of a major impact causing serious damage to the Gate. They argued that much more could be done to manage the movement of traffic around the monument.

SPAB was also worried about previous repairs undertaken by the Corporation, which used modern hard cement to point the stonework and cap the Gate. It believes that these repairs may have worsened the problem of water penetration and accelerated the decay of the ancient stonework. SPAB recommended that the Corporation take measures to dispose of rainwater from the top of the Gate and urged the adoption of a regime for the maintenance of highway gutters and drains near the base of the monument to ensure that surface water is directed away from the Gate’s eroding base. And it pushed for urgent work to secure the rare remnant of medieval paving under the Gate.

The failure of the Corporation’s bid for grant funding to repair the Pipewell gate will compound the problem that all the town gates in Winchelsea are in urgent need of repair or better maintenance, something which the Corporation has repeatedly been urged to do.

Photo: Richard Comotto

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