Monday 1 April 2013

Renewed Focus on UK Metal Detecting: Tottenham Monument Defaced

.
Residents of Tottenham were shocked to find this morning that a beloved local landmark had been vandalised in the night. The 'Monument to the Unsung Heroes of the British Heritage' was erected in January last year in the High Street to commemorate the fifth anniversary of a ground-breaking speech by David Lammy, MP for Tottenham on the topic of the value of artefact hunting and collecting in the modern cultural life of the nation. The monument was erected by public subscription and the metal was donated by members of the National Council for Metal Detecting who organized a special rally near Windsor to obtain this material.
 

In the night however it seems somebody took a hammer to the monument. "They broke off his pinpointer", explained Sam Thugwit, local resident, "and spraypainted the standy-thing what it stands on". The graffito reads "Where's your GPS? Where's the rest of the stuff? Call yourself Responsible?" Thugwit blamed "radical archaeologists" who he says have been a great bother to the metal detecting community recently. The Portable Antiquities Scheme once again declined to comment on the topic of responsible detecting, but said that it was "a pity" that metal detectorists cannot be left to carry on their legal hobby in peace. A number of members of staff have been dispatched to Tottenham to help scrub the graffito from the monument when the bank Holiday is over.



4 comments:

Rantman said...

do you approve of this type behaviour? whats next pitch battles in the fields between detectorists and archies? if so i would put my money on the detectorists rather than the guys in the wooly jumpers and beards.

seriously i dont think vandolism is going to win over the minds of the general public.

Paul Barford said...

Why do you discount the idea that it might have been a disgruntled member of the public that attacked the monument?

Why not pop along to Tottenham tomorrow with a bucket and a scrubbing brush? They could probably do with some help and a show of solidarity.

Rantman said...

essentially the masses don't really give a shit about the issues that you and I are passionate about and are unlikley to be stimulated into vandalism.

Paul Barford said...

My first reaction is that therefore the PAS is totally failing to do its job.

My second is to note that collectors in general frequently try to present themselves as some kind of elite - above the hoi polloi who know nothing and care for nothing.

 
Creative Commons License
Ten utwór jest dostępny na licencji Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa-Bez utworów zależnych 3.0 Unported.