Carpenters from the National Trust for Jersey have been carrying out essential repairs on Victoria Tower above Gorey after it was discovered that the door had been damaged by wood rot.
The front of the double-thickness door was removed and taken to the trust’s headquarters at The Elms in St Mary to be repaired using old timbers taken from a warehouse that was demolished to make way for the new RBC building, Gaspé House. It was then returned and painted.
Properties manager Ernie Le Brun, who repaired the door with Tony Gray, said it is thought that the door is older than the Martello tower, which was built in 1837 to protect Mont Orgueil castle.
Local Blue Badge Guide Sue Hardy believes the door could have been recycled from Fort Regent.
Meanwhile, the trust’s maintenance team is currently restoring the historic town houses and shop in Pitt Street, to the rear of the Co-op’s redevelopment of its Charing Cross store.
The team is working alongside a UK firm, Gower Brothers from Essex, which specialises in traditional plastering methods, using lime plaster.
Historic building consultant and National Trust vice-president Antony Gibb said that workers were part-way through a five-week project to replace all the interior plaster and also that on the buildings’ exterior.
He said: ‘There are three coats of lime plaster to apply and they have to leave each coat to cure for seven days until it is ready for the next coat.
‘It is a process that involves applying three coats of lime plaster. There’s a first coating, then what is called a scratch coating, and then a last 3-mm coating which contains lime mixed with hair.’
