The Times - UK (2022-02-16)

the times | Wednesday February 16 2022 13

News

Royal Museums Greenwich are in a
fundraising race to ensure that their
largest tapestry can be displayed for the
first time in 22 years.
The Burning of the Royal James at the
Battle of Solebay, which is about 24 sq
metres, is being restored before an ex-
hibition next year. However, a crowd-
funding campaign on the Art Fund
website, which launches today, must
raise £15,000 from the public by March

A senior civil servant has said he felt
violated when a former colleague
declared her love for him and set up
camp in Whitehall hoping to meet him.
Alex Wilkinson, become aware that
Ray Israel-Wilkinson, a 33-year-old
economist, had set up social media ac-
counts to discuss him after they worked
together at the Department for Cul-
ture, Media and Sport.
Wilkinson found a Twitter page with
5,000 followers where she claimed
GCHQ was trying to stop them from
being together.
Jennifer Gatland, for the prosecu-
tion, said Israel-Wilkinson sat outside
the office in Parliament Street on
May 27 last year with a placard which
said: “Waiting for my Wilko”.
Gatland said: “This caused signifi-
cant distress for Mr Wilkinson who had
to change his routine, entrances and so
forth. The defendant has created social
media pages claiming they are married
and declaring her love for him.”
Israel-Wilkinson had been seen

camped out with banners and placards

saying: “This is not a protest. Waiting

for my Wilko.”

She had changed her name from

Rayner Sultan in what prosecutors said

was an attempt to give the impression

they were married, and had a second

Twitter account with a pinned tweet of

104 love songs dedicated to Wilkinson.

He told Westminster magistrates’

court that Israel-Wilkinson began to

contact him after leaving the depart-

ment and insisted on meeting him.

“I wasn’t comfortable because we

didn’t have any meaningful relation-

ship,” Wilkinson said. “She was writing

Stalker sat in Whitehall

waiting for ex-colleague

about how she was in love with me and

insinuating that we’d had some roman-

tic connection when we hadn’t.

“It was quite difficult because you

could see she was clearly in a bad men-

tal state. It’s difficult to see someone

who is suffering... and you can’t really

do anything to help them.”

Israel-Wilkinson was arrested for

harassing Wilkinson but continued to

sit outside the office in defiance of her

bail conditions. In August last year she

was detained under the Mental Health

Act and taken to hospital where she

continued to email Wilkinson.

She did not attend her trial and was

convicted in her absence by District

Judge Timothy Godfrey, who issued a

warrant for her arrest. He said: “I have

been presented with an over-abun-

dance of evidence that the defendant

stalked Alexander Wilkinson.”

The biography on Israel-Wilkinson’s

Twitter account read: “Please help my

@alexwilko85 contact me. He is forced

by evil souls to ostracise me. He loves

me as much as I love him. My Wilko is

unhappy. Please.”

Charlie Moloney

T

he “sleeping

giants” of

neolithic

Britain have

given up some

of their secrets, and they

threaten to put the

builders of Stonehenge

in the shade (David

Sanderson writes).

Research on “palisade

enclosures” near

Avebury henge and

stone circles in

Wiltshire has concluded

that stones used in their

construction originated

280 miles away in

Northumberland’s

Cheviot Hills.

If the granite stones at

West Kennet were

carried south by people,

rather than glacial

movement, the distance

is almost double that

covered by the Preseli

mountain bluestones

that formed Stonehenge

5,000 years ago.

The researchers wrote

in British Archaeology

that while more research

was needed it was

already “beyond doubt

one of the most

extraordinary and

puzzling occurrences of

non-local material in

neolithic Britain”. One

striking implication is

that despite its proximity

to Stonehenge the

people involved at

Avebury had a “different

pattern of networks and

long-distance links... to

those seen in the

Stonehenge region”. The

researchers said: “There

might also be a deeper

history to such links and

movements than we

currently envisage,

going back to the 4th

millennium BC.”

The West Kennet

stones, about 70

pieces of decayed

granite known as

“grus”, were found

in deep postholes of

a timber structure

dating from about

2500BC. Some were

arranged in a ring

around a grave holding

the remains of people,

with researchers unsure

of their purpose.

The new paper does

not rule out that the

grus were carried south

from the Cheviot Hills

by glacial movement,

although they would still

need to have been

collected from Norfolk

or Yorkshire.

The research team,

including Mark Gillings

of Bournemouth

University and his

counterpart at

Southampton

University, Joshua

Pollard, said that

their challenge was

to learn what

sustained these

long-distance

networks in neolithic

Britain. They said:

“Was it simply

pilgrimage, or more

daily matters such as

histories of migration,

intermarriage,

kinship and common

self-identification?”

Rock giants’

ancient trek

may eclipse

Stonehenge

c

S

U

P

t

to

s

lo

n B “ p d h

in

k

s

Stonehenge

Monmouth

West

Kennet,

Avebury

Bluestones

Carn Goedog,

Preseli Mountains

Approx

124 miles

Approximately

280 miles

Granite grus

Cunyan Crags,

Northumberland 50 miles

Possible

routes

The stones at Avebury are

made of granite. If they

were carried to Wiltshire by

hand the distance would

outdo that of Stonehenge

Tyre worker awarded £20,

over ‘lazy old white guy’ jibe

A recycling worker has been awarded

more than £20,000 after a black col-

league claimed that calling him a “lazy

old white guy” was “just banter”.

Barry Moore, 55, was repeatedly told

by younger co-workers that he was too

old to do his job at the tyre recycling

business in Rotherham.

An employment tribunal has now

ruled that Moore was the victim of con-

stant harassment and bullying that ulti-

mately forced him to leave his job.

The hearing in Leeds was told Moore

was a tyre grader for Sean Pong Tyres,

a small recycling and export company.

Moore was one of two white workers

and the owner, Sean Frimpong, and

two employees, Desmond Owusu and

Eric Barkoh, were of Ghanaian origin.

Moore and Owusu had known each

other for many years and Owusu once

dated Moore’s sister-in-law.

Their relationship “went downhill

fairly rapidly” towards the end of 2020,

when Moore complained about Owu-

su.He alleged that he called him a “gay

white man” and a “lazy w***er” , who

was too old to do his job.

He also claimed that on one occasion

Owusu called him a c*** in Ghanaian

in front of Barkoh and Frimpong, who

translated and reprimanded Owusu.

The company said the comments

were work banter that was reciprocated

by Moore. Owusu said in evidence that

the pair often swore at each other but

never used any racist language.

But the judge, Eoin Fowell, ruled

Moore found the comments “intimi-

dating”. He said that there was “no sug-

gestion” from Owusu that he ever felt

intimidated by Moore and he “accepted

he did enjoy winding Mr Moore up”.

Moore resigned amid claims that the

working environment had caused him

“many days of stress, upset, and sleep-

less nights and loss of appetite”.

He said that the “situation has also

affected my mental health and gave me

no choice but to seek medical help. I feel

for my own sanity I must move on.”

Judge Fowell said: “It is clear that the

abusive remarks were on a regular

basis. Hence the resignation was... a

constructive dismissal and an act of di-

rect discrimination on grounds of age

and race”.

The tribunal rejected a claim by

Moore that he had also been the victim

of sex orientation discrimination.

Jonathan Ames

ALAMY

Ray Israel-Wilkinson claimed that she

and Alex Wilkinson were married

Crowdfunder keeps hope afloat for restored tapestry of naval battle

Jack Blackburn 17 to pay for the artwork to be hung.
“This is so crucial,” said Victoria
Mottram of the museums. “Then it
wouldn’t have to return to our conser-
vation stalls and not be seen.”
According to the rules of the crowd-
funder, donors are charged only if the
£15,000 target is met. Otherwise, no
money is received. Crowdfunders use
this as a way of motivating donors.
The piece has played a symbolic role
in the history of the Greenwich muse-
ums, and hung behind George VI when

he opened the National Maritime

Museum in 1937. It was made by the

father and son duo of Willem van de

Velde the Elder and Younger and

depicts a battle from the Third Anglo-

Dutch War. During the battle off the

Suffolk coast, the Royal James was set

on fire by the Dutch and sank.

That day, May 28, 1672, was wit-

nessed by Van de Velde the Elder. With-

in a year, he was artist for Charles II and

worked at the Queen’s House in Green-

wich, now part of the National Mari-

time Museum. The 350th anniversary

is being marked by the exhibition.

The cost of the conservation, being

done by a studio in Brighton, is

£179,000. The tapestry has decayed,

collapsing under its own weight and

being damaged by the light.

“When you hang the tapestry for the

first time, you can really see the work of

the team,” said Zenzie Tinker, head of

the studio. “On something like this, it is

so many months, so we are looking for-

ward to that moment.”

The 350-year-old artwork is being

prepared for an exhibition next year