Falling masonry closes Buckhurst Place

The pavement in front of the pub building, which is over a century old, was also closed to pedestrians.

Firefighters under Crew Commander Graham Fletcher used an aerial ladder platform from Hastings to get at the top of the two-storey building and remove further loose masonry.

A specialist firm was called in to erect scaffolding so that contractors could make permanent repairs to a horizontal masonry frieze just below the building's roof-line.

Though the pavement was littered with debris from the fall, nobody was hurt in the incident.