PART of the iconic Reigate Priory will remain closed for at least another year as repair work continues.
The news leaves the future of Reigate Priory Museum "up in the air", after it was closed when part of the Priory building was damaged in 2010.
Damage caused by snowfall forced the closure of two rooms in the Grade I-listed building in late 2010 – one of which housed the museum – but the subsequent repair work has been blighted by delays.
Reigate Priory Junior School, which operates from the site, has continued to run, and the museum was supposed to reopen last summer.
But Surrey County Council announced this week work is to continue for at least another year, and there is no schedule for the museum's reopening.
Surrey County Council spokeswoman Joy Ridley said: "We have worked closely with English Heritage and other specialists to identify, through surveys, the structural maintenance works required at the Reigate Priory and will continue to do so as the works take place.
"We anticipate that this will take up to a year to complete, assuming no further work is identified."
The Priory, owned by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council and leased to Surrey County Council, is a scheduled ancient monument.
As a result English Heritage, the body which protects and promotes the country's historic environment, must sign off any proposed repair works.
Reigate and Banstead borough councillor Roger Newstead raised the Priory's plight at a meeting of the county council's Reigate and Banstead local committee at the end of last year, but was given no guarantee if or when the museum would be able to return.
In a response released this week, committee chairman Cllr Dorothy Ross Tomlin explained work already undertaken at the site has unearthed new problems.
She said: "The current programme will be solely dependent on not finding further structural issues as the work progresses."
A full report is currently being prepared to keep all interested parties aware of the problems, Cllr Ross Tomlin added.
Speaking to the Mirror, Cllr Newstead said: "Because it is an old timber-framed building, whenever the builders take a bit of plaster down, they find something which is a bit nasty underneath.
"They can't give the museum any idea of when we will be allowed back; it's all a bit up in the air."
He added: "The [county council] can't give me any commitment as regards the completion of the work or what space the museum will get when the work is finally complete."
