I recently wrote an opinion piece in Rye News about the sad state of the Landgate, and have received a lot of comments in support of my views. I have heard from people who would like to be involved in some kind of “Friends of the Landgate” and others who took considerable time to explain the history of attempts to stabilise and restore it. To all of you, I would like to say thank you! I really wasn’t expecting such involvement.
As I seem to have started up some interest in this, I have decided to try and move forward, by holding a meeting, hopefully at St Mary’s Centre, to see what interest there may be in moving on a very tight and focussed project, the aim of which would be limited to helping Rother District Council achieve the stabilisation of the walls of this stunning building, and exploring options for a basic covering over the top to prevent the ubiquitous buddleia and the ever present pigeons and gulls from getting into the structure.
This will involve first researching what has happened, and I know that some of the people who replied have a lot of knowledge, asking the Conservation Society for their views and contacting Rother to offer to help and to look into any charitable grants, few and far between though I think they are, as a beginning. I have been very briefly in touch with Jo Kirkham at the museum, as I did not want to get in the way of their work, and rather hope to gain more from their wisdom. Their knowledge of a Grade 1 listed scheduled monument is enormous, I know.
I need to work out exactly what I have in mind to present to the meeting, so everyone who attends is able to make their views known and improve on the initial ideas. I think that a time limited and structured piece of work has the best chance of succeeding.
An obvious first step, in any case, would be to establish Facebook and Twitter pages as social media is a clear winner for something like this. Any other ideas? Bring them to the meeting. The time and date will follow shortly, after the wonders of the Rye Arts Festival, which will be occupying a lot of us in a very enjoyable way.
Photo: Gillian Roder
