Steval is a point around the Garrison shore line of St Marys Island. Its a rock that juts out into the sea and by it is the remains of an old fort. On top of the fort they built an ugly concrete search light emplacement which I think went up during world war 1. Well the old fort used to be totally buried in the earth but now, due to natural erosion of the cliffs, the walls of the old fort are becoming exposed and these too are crumbling into the sea. See images below. I used to walk around this area with my dog and as I went I used to see small bits of pottery that fell from here and laid thereabouts among the rocks below. One day I found a small cannon ball there in the earth that had also fallen away. I got into trouble for taking it home and putting it into conservation. The police came around and accused me of stealing it. I gave it to them along with a small box of pottery fragments I had also saved over the years from thereabouts. These items they took to the local museum- whom Im told, (suprise, suprise,) - didnt want them. What happened to these few items is a mystery to me. As a result of this stupid saga I no longer pick up the bits that fall from the cliff there any more, instead I let them get lost among the rocks and taken by the sea. Then when these walls started becoming exposed to a point of degradation- I ignored it. Not my business. I stopped caring about it all because it got me into trouble. Well recently coastal erosion here claimed one of our ancient kelp pits. I took pictures of it and sent them to an archaeologist. He was disturbed by this fact but seemed strangely uninterested about the Steval fort being exposed and lost in the same way. I found this odd but sent him these pictures of it crumbling away anyway, and I think he was a little shocked as to what was on show and so decided to send my images on to Historic England. I had told them years ago this was happening and noone cared- until I saved that cannon ball and then they only seemed interested in getting me prosecuted for saving it. After they failed in that regard they stopped caring about it again. They have a strange logic. Its ok for artifacts to fall away and be lost, but its not ok to pick them up and store them for posterity. The Police asked me what I was going to do with the small collection. I said at the time that " I didnt know." and that I simply thought it wrong to just let them be lost. The last time I tried to do something with them was when Historic England sent over archaeologists to excavate a trench in a random spot about 200 yards away along the cliff...
......I went to where they were working and pointed at the Steval nearby and told them they should be recording what was there rather than disturbing a new place and offered them my bits n bobs to show them what was being lost nearby. They seemed totally disinterested in the Steval fort and found very little in the way of archaeology where they were digging. They could have recorded this fort before it started falling into the sea and have a record of how it originally looked before degradation occurred to it. My images are the only record taken thus far and my collecting of the pottery sherds the only collection of items saved from the site. Yet I was wrong for doing it!! I could have carried on recording and collecting but the fact that it got me into trouble put me off continuing -now all has been lost. The fort, the artifacts, and with it all went the information too. I was told that by picking up items from around the base of this fort I was stealing heritage. Well if that was stealing from an historic monument then so is every single beachcomber that hunts for and picks up artifacts from around St Marys old quay every day which is also an historic monument.
Seeing this old fort being lost is heart breaking but noone cares unless you try to save something. And then they only seem interested in prosecution rather than recording whats there. All the items I could have saved had I been left alone, but as I walk over them today I just say to myself- "Not my problem" and the sea takes it all. Ever since then our museum lost its home and was forced to farm out most of its displays and is still in transition. It had to have a good clear out. They are currently getting rid of books. I have no idea what happened to the items I collected that were given to the police. All I know is that the museum wasnt interested in them at the time- so it possibly all went into the police bin. So now that an archaeologist is finally interested in sending my images to Historic England, they may finally decide to send someone over to record whats remaining of this old civil war fort. Had the police returned the items I collected back to me- I could have given them to the archaeologists when they eventually turn up- as they now surely and finally must do. However, all my information is probably now lost forever due to the stupidity of government workers being over zealous with the small things, when the bigger picture was always right there in front of them- yet they totally ignored it until it was too late. How utterly Typical.
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