From Rayleigh Through The Looking Glass this month:
As many of you will be aware, 91 High Street (formally Yours clothing shop) is undergoing renovation and building works. Once complete the downstairs will be a restaurant (Pizza Express) and the upstairs will be the Rayleigh Town Museum (www.rayleightownmuseum.co.uk). So this month we thought we would show you some pictures of the building, especially the upstairs interior where the Museum will be located.
Can anyone explain to me how RDC’s planning department works or rather doesn’t! This is a grade 2 listed building in a conservation area and no archaeological caveat was placed in the planning process. I have queried this with RDC planning but ave yet to have an answer in three months! I am a professional archaeologist and became involved in this after the builders on site ripped out some large oak beams from the ground to the rear of the building with a mechanical excavator and informed the museum. These were then removed from site and they asked on a social network site how to stop them from degrading and how to display them. I then attended the site and spoke to the very friendly construction engineers to find out where they had found the timbers only to find that they had machined through all the archaeological deposits that would have existed to the rear of the building. They were also non-plussed why no archaeologists where on site, however I spotted several archaeological ‘features’ remained and was allowed to record them for the museum (no charge!). All the features partially excavated yielded pottery and ceramics dating from the medieval to the 18th century! How much was destroyed is beyond me!