Ypres Tower Site


The Ypres Tower Museum

This site is open 7 days a week (weather permitting )throughout the year  except on 24th and 25th December.   From April 1 through November hours are 10:30 – 5:00,  last admission 4:30 with a combined ticket available for the two sites.   From November 1 through March there is an earlier closing time of 3:30 p.m., last admission 3:00 p.m.     Admission to the Tower for adults is £3.00, concessions £2.50,  children under 16 free when accompanied by an adult.

A combined ticket for the two sites (East Street as well as the Ypres Tower) is available during the summer months for £4.00 (£3.00 concessions).  .  There are special rates for groups.  Please ring 01797-226728 or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk to arrange a group visit.

Ypres Tower today

Ypres Tower Today (Photo by Clive Sawyer)

 

The Ypres Tower is thought to have been built  in the early 14th centuryas part of the town’s defences and is the second oldest building open to the public in Rye.  (The oldest is St Mary’s church.)  The Tower has had a chequered history (see History of Ypres Tower) and as you look round the inside you can see some of  those changes in the blocked windows and doorways.

From the balcony you can look over what was once one of the largest and most important harbours in the country. In the C16th it was England’s seventh busiest port; now there is farmland where once there was sea.   There are good views from the balcony in all directions, and guides to tell you what you are seeing.

 

In the Tower are various exhibits.  One of the newest is 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, private home, prison, mortuary, museum . . . .

Prisoner's Cell (Photo by Clive Sawyer)

What it must have been like to stay in a dark cell with only bread and beer for sustenance is hard to imagine.  Would you like to spend your life here?Another cell is now a Still Room showing the uses made of  herbs and other plants now being grown  in the Tower’s Medieval Garden.   Martin Riddell has used medieval techniques to create  the structure for Lin Saines’ display.

Still Room (Clive Sawyer)

In still another cell there is medieval pottery made in Rye, which w as very fine in comparison with pottery of a similar date made elsewhere. This probably reflects the prosperity of the town and also the skills brought from France, when the town was part of the lands belonging to the Abbey of Fecamp in Normandy.

 

Smuggler's Lamp (Photo by Clive Sawyer)

Among the Tower’s specially prized objects  is  a very rare smuggler’s spout lantern, which allowed smugglers to signal to ships, without being seen by the Excisemen ashore.

Up the winding and deliberateloy uneven stairs to the first floor you will find a map showing the southeast shoreline dense with shipwrecks.  There is also a relief map which shows the development of the coastline over the last thousand years and how the Romans were able to sail over the area now known as the Romney Marsh at high tide and how, by Elizabethan times, the navigable area was far smaller and limited to Rye.   Compare what you have learned from the map with the views from the balcony today.
For younger visitors there are also feely socks – what is inside?, and various other games and puzzles to try–especially the popular Captain Pugwash Treasure Hunt (there is another of these at the East Street site) .
The  exhbitions in the basement  appeal to children of all ages:  There are examples of swords, armour and chainmail to view and also helmets and

Ground Floor (Clive Sawyer)

costumes you can wear and then be photographed if you or your parents have a camera with you.

Ypres Tower Cellar (Clive Sawyer)

 

 The ground floor of the Tower has now been made accessible to those with a physical disability, but unfortunately the ancient nature of the building means that the basement and first floor are not accessible to those who find stairs difficult.

Outside there is also a re-creation of a medieval herb garden in what was the exercise yard.  On some days there is a gardener in medieval costume to show you around. The garden can also be viewed from the balcony.  The plants there are ones medieval ladies would have grown and then taken to the Still Room where they would be dried and prepared for  for  medicinal, culinary and laundry  purposes.

Medieval Herb Garden Entrance

 

For six views from different sides of  the Tower balcony keep scrolling down.

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view-to-kent

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