Ypres Tower
Scroll down for a map.
For views from the Tower balcony click here.
Open Times and Prices
Open 7 days a week (weather permitting ) throughout the year except on 24th and 25th December.
March 30 – October 31: 10:30 – 5:00, last admission 4:30
November 1 – March 29: 10:30 am – 3:30 Last admission 3:00 pm
Admission to the Tower: Adults £4.00, Concessions (Over 65’s): £3.00
Children under 16 free but must be accompanied by an adult.
There are special rates for groups. Please ring 01797-226728 or email info@ryemuseum.co.uk to arrange a group visit.
The Tower was built before modern Health & Safety requirements so there is no lift, steep steps and a number of low doorways. The spiral staircase has steps with uneven treads. Visitors who do not wish to climb the stairs of our Ancient Monument need no longer miss out on anything thanks to our newly installed Virtual Tour. In fact, our current able-bodied visitors are enjoying it too!
Please find our Access information here: Access Statement 19092017
About the Ypres Tower
(Click on Ypres Tower Posts at right for The Story of Ypres Castle and other articles )
The Ypres Tower is thought to have been built in the early 14th century as 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 and as you look round the inside you can see some of those changes in the blocked windows and doorways.
In the Tower are various exhibits. The newest is a replica of the gibbet with skull of John Breads whose story is told here. Other recent additions are a new 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, private home, prison, mortuary, museum . . . .
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. Thanks to Lin Saines for the display.
In still another cell there is medieval pottery made in Rye, which was 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.
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.

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 normally a re-creation of a medieval herb garden in what was the exercise yard with, on some days, 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.