Member Article

North East firm’s security equipment protects priceless Magna Carta

Equipment designed and manufactured on Tyneside has been used to protect the priceless Magna Carta during its summer exhibition in St Albans.

Bastion Security built an ultra-secure room to house the document while it was on display at St Albans Cathedral. Normally used for high-protection tasks by the Government, police, military and banks, the patented BastionWALL system was called into service to safeguard the 11th Century document on loan from Lincoln Cathedral.

The bespoke ballistic and blast rated ‘room’ arrived at St Albans in a flat-pack, so it could be delivered through the cathedral’s Medieval door and erected inside in a logistically challenging operation.

Bastion Security managing director, Tom Deevy, said: “The room weighed four tonnes and was built by a small team over three nights, to avoid disrupting the daily activities in the cathedral.

“We had to design a special ramp to accommodate the 80cm drop from outside to inside the cathedral and we delivered the room’s parts on trolleys. It was a big job but we’re very proud to have created the only product that both provided the top-level security needed to protect the Magna Carta that worked within the constraints of the cathedral’s historic architecture.

“Being asked to provide protection to one of the world’s most treasured historical documents was a great privilege, and the secrecy surrounding our involvement reflected the reported £33m insured value of this piece of history.”

The travelling copy of the Magna Carta was on display in St Albans during the summer to mark the 800th anniversary of the meeting of bishops and barons in the Hertfordshire city that led to its creation. The document, signed in 1215, sets out the rights and freedoms of common people and is the foundation stone of the legal systems in the UK, US and Australia.

The BastionWALL made to protect the Magna Carta was more than three metres square but the company has made versions of the secure room ranging from the size of a filing cabinet to something a car can be driven into. It can be built outside or as a room within a room to improve security within an existing building.

Mr Deevy said: “The beauty of our system is that it is really flexible, reusable and adaptable for a number of different sectors, which makes it unique in the marketplace.

“After our success protecting the Magna Carta, we are looking at the BastionWALL’s application for museums and art galleries. It is also suitable for the domestic market for people who have high-value items they want to protect.”

Bastion Security, which is headquartered in Follingsby Park, has been designing, manufacturing and installing products to protect against ballistics, blasts and forced entry for almost 30 years. It specialises in equipment to control risks and manage threats, from terrorism to crime, including enclosures for cashpoints and secure room linings.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by HFPR .