Seaford Martello tower museum forced to close temporarily

Seaford Museum and Heritage Society, located in the Martello Tower, will temporarily shut its doors to visitors due to the poor condition of parts of the ceiling.

The trustees of the museum said: "No doubt many visitors will be aware of the distressing state of some parts of the ceiling in the Martello Tower on Seaford seafront.

"Time and seawater have not been kind to the steel reinforced concrete that was used to cover half the moat in the 1930s."

The tower is located on Seaford beach (Image: David Martin)

It has now been confirmed that Seaford Town Council will require access for their contractors into the Martello Tower Museum for approximately four weeks. The contractors will remove all the loose material from the ceilings in order to make them safe from falling debris.

To allow the contractors to carry out the work, museum volunteers will undertake the extensive task of removing and securely storing the many displays, artefacts, and records housed in the Martello Tower.

"We expect this mammoth task to take about two weeks. And then, once the ceiling work has been completed, we will need to put it all back again!" the trustees said.

The museum will use this opportunity to redecorate and improve the space as much as possible.

The tower has been used as a museum since 1979 (Image: Dave Spicer)

This means that, with "great regret", the museum will be closed to visitors from the end of the afternoon open hours at 4pm on Wednesday, November 12.

They expect to reopen "refreshed and renewed" in the New Year.

The museum thanked its members, visitors, and supporters for their continued patronage and expressed anticipation in welcoming them back in 2026.

The Martello Tower, where the museum is housed, is situated at the far eastern end of Seaford seafront.

It is number 74 of an original 103 small defensive forts built in the 1803 across the British Empire during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The museum will be closed until the New Year (Image: Simon Burchell)

The tower boasts a deceptive 5,000 square foot display area which includes the roof with cannon, entrance floor with museum shop, the lower floor of the tower, and the covered dry moat area.

The Seaford Museum of Local History, now known as the Seaford Museum and Heritage Society, occupied the tower in 1979.

After an intensive refurbishment by Lewes District Council in 2004, supported by a large grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and other sources, the tower became the property of Seaford Town Council.