What a year it’s been! Once again, it has been a pleasure to share a piece of Eastbourne’s history with locals and tourists alike this year – all while raising vital funds to improve the condition of our lovely Martello inside and out. Here’s some of our highlights from this year…
Record number of visitors
This year we’ve held 18 open days, welcoming over 3,300 visitors – a record for the Wish Tower Friends!
Our open days are always free – the incredible support of our visitors means we have raised over £1,500 towards upkeep of our Tower.
Heritage Open Days
In September, we took part in Heritage Open Days – England’s largest festival of history and culture. It was delightful to welcome more than 700 visitors over these days, including 20 who booked on to a special architectural tour.
One visitor said:
“Really pleased to be able to get a guided tour by 2 really interesting local volunteers. Really happy to have made an effort to go to the Martello Tower and now able to tell friends and family a bit about its history!”
A Martello Classroom
Back in May, a group from Stafford Junior School visited us on a trip. It was wonderful to see everyone so enthusiastic to learn about the Tower’s role in Eastbourne’s history!
The pupils wrote us a wonderful card after their visit to say thank you. One wrote:
I truly enjoyed the thrilling tour of the Wish Tower. I learnt a lot of new things (including that people used to live there!), it was a really fun day!
Are you a teacher looking for your next escape from the classroom? Get in touch with us to arrange a visit in the New Year!
Fixing our door
Our door has been in place since the Wish Tower was built in the early 1800s – and time has taken its toll.
Over the summer, after consultation with Historic England, we bid our door a temporary farewell and sent it off with a local firm for repairs that are sympathetic to the original design and materials.
We’re able to do this thanks to funds raised by our visitors from open days, and a kind contribution from Eastbourne Borough Council.
We hope to have the door re-fitted (in a much better condition) early in the New Year.
Sharing our history
Thanks to generous funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, we have been able to refresh our signage – with five new pull-up banners inside the Tower, and four panels fixed to the steps outside the Tower.
All of the new signage is now in an easier to read colour scheme, has updated pictures, and additional historical information.
We’ve also created a new visitor guide booklet with more in-depth information, as well as an activity sheet for our younger visitors!
What will we be doing in 2025?
Our aim is to open again regularly in spring, once we have longer and brighter days! We will post on our social media channels when we re-open, and our flag will be flying if we’re open.
We would love to stage more live performances. If you would like to play at the Tower (with the quirky acoustics and atmospheric mood lighting), please get in touch.
We are also looking to carry out further maintenance to the Tower, improving the steps onto the roof and the step down to the magazine in the basement.
Interested in joining us?
To build upon the success of the last few years, we are always keen for new people to join the Wish Tower Friends group.
The commitment can be as much as you would like – we like to think we’re a friendly bunch and there are plenty of opportunities to take part. You could do anything from chatting to visitors at open days, through to researching historic information, creating content for our social media, or fundraising.
It’s a great way to meet new people and help look after part of Eastbourne’s history.
If you’re interested – please get in touch with us.
Thank you
Our work this year would not have been possible without the donations and interest from our visitors – thank you!
As one of the last few remaining Martello Towers still open to the public, and an icon of Eastbourne, it’s vital we’re able to do our bit to look after our Tower.
If you’d like to support our work and help look after the Tower, please consider donating online or at one of our open days.
