This Blog continues the story of Dale Fort.
Just how do you build an accommodation and teaching block up a very narrow road, inside a fortress, on top of a cliff? Read on…
The History of Dale Fort, Part the 127th (or slightly lower, I’ve lost count, sorry)
A New Building at Dale Fort
Part 1. Pontification and permission
The first step towards getting a new building is to get yourself recognised as a successful field centre. 1999 was a record year for student numbers. Julian Cremona’s efforts had at last resulted in Dale Fort being seen by the powers that were as the successful centre it had actually always been. It was obvious that more room was needed. It was equally obvious that the accommodation for both students and staff was not up to 21st Century expectations.
The Executive Committee of The FSC began to think about the prospect of a new building for Dale.
The architect they selected had designed buildings for other FSC centres. It was not seen as a problem that he lived 250 miles away and probably couldn’t have pointed to Dale on a map. Lots of ideas were discussed at great length as to the precise location and design of the new building.
My favourite suggestion was my own (obviously). This would be a two storey building occupying the gun platform on Dale Point. It would have a roof covered in coastal vegetation and recreate the cliff profile as it was before the Victorian military engineers blasted out the flat platform with dynamite. The windows would furnish amazing views of Milford Haven and The Atlantic Ocean. It would be almost invisible to onlookers because the sloping, vegetated roof would make it look like a natural cliff. I mention this here because if anyone ever decided to build something more at Dale Fort…?
Obviously, this was rejected instantly.
My second favourite suggestion (from The Centre Manager Julian Cremona, I think) was for a building occupying the Zalinski Pneumatic Dynamite Torpedo Gun Emplacement.
Obviously this was also rejected almost instantly.
The Executive Committee continued to think. As they pondered, a further four years went by and Dale Fort remained very profitable. Nothing changed their opinion that Dale Fort deserved improvement.
Eventually many of their discussions proved pointless, The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Planning Authorities had the final say. They dictated that the only acceptable place for the building would be on the lawn between what was then “C” Block and Bottom Lab (which I used to call Proctology, but I don’t think anyone ever got it). (Nowadays, St. Cadoc and St. Elvis). Eventually, by 2003 the plan for a new building had been produced.
The Courtyard and Lawn at Dale Fort in 2005 before the new building
The National Park Planning Authority had issued their permission with one proviso. This was that the Geography Laboratory (now known as Grassholm) be demolished. This building they said despoiled the appearance of the Milford Haven Waterway. Nobody had ever realised this before, so it was a bit of a surprise. We felt that it was something of an exaggeration, given that there were four oil refineries and a huge power station making their presence felt on the waterway. Grassholm had been there since 1960 (before any oil refineries) and it was the biggest teaching room at Dale Fort, so it was with great reluctance that this was agreed to.
Plans were redrawn and resubmitted. The plans were now deemed acceptable and given the go ahead. When the plans were returned it was noticed that the Grassholm building was still on them. Somehow, the wrong plans had been approved. The building survives to this day, happily destroying the ambiance of the Milford Haven Waterway and remaining as Dale Fort’s biggest and best classroom.
CADW (the Welsh ancient monuments people) stipulated that the limestone steps (see picture above) were an integral part of a Grade Two Listed Structure and must be preserved at all costs. Naturally, they were smashed to pieces by the builders at an early stage of the development.
There then followed two more years of discussion.
Then, on the morning of 9th November 2005, three men and a digger arrived. They set about clearing and levelling an area behind the Bronze/Iron Age defensive rampart in the next door field to create a compound.
Within minutes, news of this development reached the local community. Alarm, despondency and anger were the results. Within days, I was detailed to meet the National Park’s Archaeologist who was understandably upset at the destruction of part of a registered ancient monument. She was at a loss to understand how this could have been allowed to happen.
The builders had stripped off the top layer of earth with their digger, covered the site with hardcore and built defensive ramparts of their own to protect the site. The builders had however asked for and been given permission to excavate the site. Everything they had done was legal. How could this be?
This is how it could be:
The site had been the subject of much archaeological work by the late Professor Grimes and his students. The annual “Courses for All” archaeology week was for years a popular part of the Dale Fort programme. Visitors today will observe the remains of the Iron Age rampart as a bank of moderate height and a ditch of moderate depth. It would have been a much more formidable defence when it was constructed, the bank three or four feet higher and capped with sharpened stakes and the ditch three or four feet deeper. The large post-holes on either side of the central entrance indicate that the wooden entrance gate would have been a formidable barrier.
Professor Grimes (centre right) and his slaves c1970’ish
In order for Grimes and his slaves to dig the site without breaking the law, it had been necessary to temporarily deregister it as an ancient monument for the period of their work. The site would then be re-registered after the season’s work had been completed. The last of Grimes’s digs had taken place in 1988 and the site had not been re-registered. Permission had been granted because it was not listed in the appropriate ancient monuments file.
CADW (the Welsh Ancient Monuments people) ordered that the site be restored as much as possible under the supervision of archaeologists. In July 2007 the stripped off surface was examined by workers from Cambria Archaeology. It took 2 days just to remove the hardcore. Evidence of a small ancient structure of unknown function was found near to the bank.
Little else was found in that very dry summer, until on the final day of the project, it rained. Then, just inside the rampart, slightly north of the entrance, just visible on the wet surface appeared two concentric circles. The diameter of the inner one was 12 metres. The archaeologist in charge (Pete Crane) realized that they had found the site of a huge circular building, surrounded by a drip-gully (drainage channel). This had been missed completely by Grimes and only found now because of a bureaucratic blunder, an accidental act of vandalism, and a chance change in the weather. The sheer size of the foundation makes one wonder whether it might have been a permanent habitation for someone important or maybe a warehouse for goods? You can read more speculative material about the possible functions of Pembrokeshire Promontory Forts in Blog 97 Dale Fort Blog Number 97 | dalefort (wordpress.com)
The builders had piled up the earth into a 21st Century defensive rampart to prevent thieves from stealing materials and machinery. CADW felt that these new defences might bamboozle later generations of archaeologists and so they made them (as best as they could) put it back where it had come from. The stripped surface is now recolonised by vegetation and is used by Dale Fort students for a variety of botanical studies, football and sitting about.
Much like the new building at Dale Fort, Blog 102 has taken rather longer to complete than anticipated. It will therefore be left to Blog 103 to describe the actual construction of the building. This will be the first telling of this thrilling tale. Don’t miss it.
Post Script: The winner of the Dale Fort Blog Christmas Quiz was so unutterably thrilled by the whole experience that he insisted on re-creating the presentation ceremony in real life (see Blog Number 101 for a picture of the virtual event). Thus, at a glittering ceremony (another one) he was presented with his prize before the Dale Amateur Dramatics Society variety show on February 17th this year.
Simon Wood (right) receives his prize from me (left)
(Note Simon’s exact replication of hat and dinner suit and my first (and probably only) appearance in this blog))
Well done Simon and thanks for supporting this blog and entering the competition.
dalefort 