Sandal Castle damaged by climbers

Some visitors have been spotted at the top of the Great Hall and the Lodging Chamber on various occasions. Following consultation with Historic England, it was agreed that masonry work could be carried out at lower levels to make both structures more difficult to scale.

Coun Jacqui Speight, portfolio holder for culture, sport and leisure, said: “We have a contractor on site carrying out conservation work to the monument. This is phase two of a £730,000 project which the Council has funded to preserve our heritage for current and future generations.

“Once we had erected scaffolding around the structures and could get a closer look, we realised that the some areas were in a far worse state than we realised with stones having been damaged and even dislodged by climbers.

“Unfortunately, some visitors risk their safety by climbing the monument and we know of at least one occasion when the fire service has had to come to rescue a child from the top. We have decided to carry out anti-climb work in order to protect the public, as well as the monument.”

Other additional work to be undertaken is to reinforce the six wells on site and to remove large amounts of litter from inside them.

The grilles covering the wells have large holes, so to improve health and safety and to prevent litter from accumulating in future, they will be removed, a fine metal grille will be inserted and then the original grilles replaced on top.

The additional works can be carried out within the budget for the current works at the castle. However, it will mean that the project completion will be delayed slightly until late summer.