Plans launchedfor brand newRye museum

The Museum has applied to Rother District Council for planning permission to build a new Museum at the Ypres Tower.

This exciting development is intended to replace their existing Museum at 3 East Street with a light and airy, part glazed roof over the courtyard at Rye Castle.

It will mean that all the museum’s exhibits are housed on one site.

Peter Varley, from Rye Museum, said: “Local architects Manning Duffie have spent the last three years working with the Museum to prepare plans for the courtyard and both believe that the proposed development will result in an iconic landmark attraction which will give visitors to Rye and local residents, an exciting destination and thereby be of great help to the town’s valuable tourist trade.

The Museum has been concerned for some time with the falling visitor numbers at our East Street site and also with the need to update the facilities there, as well as the increasing cost of maintaining the site.

“We anticipate that the development will be funded by the sale of 3 East Street and from the Museum’s own resources.

“The Ypres Tower, which is a Scheduled Monument, has recently benefitted from grant funded major structural repairs to both the main tower and the Women’s Tower as well as new displays and much improved interpretation panels.

“We at the Museum believe that should these latest plans be given approval then the development will put it on a firm footing for the future.”

One of the newest exhibits at the Ypres Tower is a replica of the gibbet with skull of John Breads .

Other recent additions include a model of the changes in the local shoreline and the Ypres Tower Embroidery, created by a team of stitchers over a period of several years and depicting the Tower’s roles through nine centuries of history as defence, home, prison, mortuary and museum.