The stone - the Google Maps of its day - is possibly the only surviving one of 34 such points and the set is the only one of its kind found in Asia.
JENNIFER.NGO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 11:23pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 15 December, 2015, 11:23pm
HKU Department of Real Estate and Construction Lecturer, & Hong Kong Maritime Museum Former Director, Dr Stephen Davies (centre), with students Chan Yiu-hung (left) and (Choi Cho-hong with the 172-year-old British military authority Saiwan Boundary Marker Stone in Sai Wan Shan . Photo: David Wong
An over 170-year-old marker stone - used for drawing the very first set of scientifically surveyed maps of Hong Kong - was rediscovered during a university student field trip, with a submission made a month ago to have the stone listed as a Grade I object for its rarity.
The stone - necessary for surveyors to accurately draw maps - is possibly the only surviving one of 34 such points and the set is the only one of its kind found in Asia.
The marker stone now sits at the edge of barbed fence erected around TV satellite dishes within the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village in Sai Wan Shan. It was estimated to be built between 1842 and 1845.
“It was used in the very first survey [of Hong Kong],” said Dr Stephen Davies, whose University of Hong Kong students discovered the stone after he gave them a fun task to find it among the old military ruins of Sai Wan Barracks.
Davies said the survey was done by Major General Thomas Bernard Collinson with the Royal Engineers, also the person who is believed to have put the stone in place.
The British never resurveyed Hong Kong until roughly 1900 for the survey published in 1912 - which was after the British rented the New Territories, he added where by then the marker stone was no longer needed. This stone was only used once.
“Once it wasn’t needed, it was never needed again,” he said. “And then it got overlooked and overlooked.”
Marker stones are structures used by surveyors to mark the position their equipment .
Marker stones work as today’s Google maps, said Lawrence Lai Wai-Chung, professor and town planner from the University of Hong Kong.
This particular marker stone had “BO” carved on it - is believed to stand for the Board of Ordnance - the British military authority in charge of surveying and mapping before it was disbanded in 1855.
While no other marker stone of the same design were found in Asia, there are similar ones in Canada and Ireland - both British colonies, said Davies.
The university had submitted an application to the Antiquities Advisory Board to have the stone listed as a Grade I object.
Lee Ho-yin, head of the university’s architectural conservation programmes said there are less than 100 such graded heritage objects and sites from the nineteenth century in Hong Kong, and even less from before 1860.
“As the marker stone is right next to the TV satellite dishes, it needs to be protected or it may be destroyed or removed unknowingly if the satellite discs as moved,” he added.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1891703/bid-have-hong-kong-marker-stone-listed-heritage
