Historic sites could be littered with 'irritating' warning signs after pensioner fell in moat

Mr Taylor, from East Grinstead, sued English Heritage, which manages 380 properties, and the body was found 50 per cent liable for his injuries by a judge last year.

Judge David Blunt QC said the sheer drop into the moat form the bastion wall would not have been visible from the artillery platform.

And he ruled that English Heritage were to blame in failing to put a warning sign on the artillery platform or path.

Challenging the decision, Derek O'Sullivan QC, for English Heritage, said the body viewed the case as "extremely important".

Mr Taylor's victory in court would "fuel the popular conception that this country is in the grip of a compensation culture" and lead to a plague of irritating signs, warning against "obvious" dangers.

Sensible people could assess risks for themselves and owners of historic sites would be forced into "an unduly defensive approach".

The case would lead to "an unwelcome proliferation of unsightly warning signs", telling visitors about "obvious risks", added the QC.

The path was so steep the only sensible way of going down it was "on one's bottom" and that was exactly what Mr Taylor's wife had done.

However, the Master of the Rolls, Lord Dyson, said there was nothing obvious about the threat posed by the vertical drop into the moat.

The judge, sitting with sitting with Lords Justice McFarlane and Beatson, at the high court accepted that English Heritage and others faced "difficult borderline decisions" about when to put up warning signs.

But, in Mr Taylor's case, the absence of a sign meant "reasonable steps" had not been taken to keep him safe.

Lord Dyson added: "The decision in this case should not be interpreted as requiring occupiers like English Heritage to place unsightly warning signs in prominent positions all over sensitive historic sites".

Mr Taylor, an engineer, was descending a steep grass path below the castle when he lost his footing and was "propelled" over the sheer face of the bastion wall into the moat.

Minutes earlier he had been with his family viewing cannons on the castle's artillery platform, but had strolled off to take some photos.

"He was not seen or heard of for 10 minutes or so, and was then seen to be lying in the moat unconscious", the court was told.

A civil servant for 22 years, Mr Taylor was a top mechanical and electrical engineer who worked on the development of the Tornado fighter jet.

He later worked as principal planning officer and engineer at the Palace of Westminster as both houses of Parliament were preparing for the first televised debate and as a maths teacher at schools in Sutton and Tunbridge Wells and was still heavily involved in education when the accident forced his retirement.

Mr Taylor's barrister, John Foy QC, argued that the drop to the moat was "masked" from those on the artillery platform and constituted a trap for the unwary.

He was a "careful and rational" man who would not have taken any unnecessary risks, he told the court.

The amount of Mr Taylor's compensation will be assessed by a judge at a later date, unless settlement terms are now agreed.

Carisbrooke has pre-medieval origins and is notorious for being the site of King Charles 1's captivity before his execution in 1649.