Man sentenced for damaging

Henry Price was sentenced on Wednesday, 10th January for damaging an historic monument.

Commenting, Detective Inspector Bell, Police Service of Northern Ireland lead for Heritage and Cultural Crime said: “On Friday, 16th April 2021, police were made aware of building works taking place in the Moneybroom Road area of Lisburn, where protected monuments were situated.

“Upon reviewing the building site, it became evident to officers that the landowner had levelled land without receiving any prior consent, destroying lime kiln structures that had been in position for many years.

“Mr Price had entered a previous guilty plea to the offence on Tuesday, 12th December and been subsequently fined £50,000.

“This case demonstrates the close working relationship between police and the Historic Environment Division in the Department for Communities, in an effort to protect our heritage and investigate any reports of criminality.”

Brian McKervey, acting director of the Historic Environment Division (HED) at Department for Communities, said: “We welcome the court’s recognition that our heritage is an important and finite resource and an appreciation that once gone, these sites are impossible to replace.

“Not only did Moneybroom lime kilns, which date back to the 1800s, provide a unique example of a time when our society was undergoing massive change, they were a reminder of many aspects of our shared heritage, including the industrialisation of our landscape and society.

“HED appreciates the pressures that scheduled monument owners can face and one of our primary aims is to support them and facilitate their needs, where possible.

“However, the Department will also work with criminal justice partners to pursue prosecutions where warranted, in particular when historic monuments have been damaged or destroyed”.

A spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) said: "An investigation into the unauthorised works and complete destruction of lime kilns at Moneybroom resulted in a file being submitted to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS). The PPS carefully considered all the available evidence submitted in the investigation file and took a decision to prosecute one individual.

"The PPS will continue to work closely with the Department of Communities Historic Environment Division (HED) and other criminal justice partners, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland, to prosecute the alleged damaging of an historic monument, where the Test for Prosecution is met".

If you or anyone you know is aware of monuments being disturbed to carry out works, where consent has not been agreed, you are encouraged to contact police on the non-emergency number 101, or submit a report online using the non-emergency reporting form via http://www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/ . You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or online at http://crimestoppers-uk.org/ .

For more information on Scheduled Monuments go to https://www.communities-ni.gov.uk/articles/scheduled-historic-monuments.

Lime burning for agricultural use was common on a small scale on farms throughout the 1700s and early 1800s. However, from the mid-1800s onwards the thousands of small single farm lime kilns were gradually replaced by far fewer numbers of larger, more efficient, industrial lime burning sites typically founded by the sort of entrepreneurs common during the Victorian period. The Moneybroom Lime Kilns were constructed somewhere between 1830-1900, with 1870-1900 being most likely from the historical evidence.Works at scheduled monuments are regulated by the Department on behalf of the public and prior legal consent for works must be gained by owners. Such consents are known as Scheduled Monument Consent and are managed by HED on behalf of the Department.