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.
