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Obviously homeboy broke the law, but to destroy this stuff rahter than repatriate it to a museum or something?
Most people use their garages to store their broom, their lawnmower, perhaps a few rusty paint cans – but not Alan Tissington.
Instead, the 46-year-old fireman kept a full-scale military arsenal including bombs, bullets, hand grenades and a World War 2 machine gun.
For more than forty years, Mr Tissington lovingly built up his vast collection by spending hours scanning muddy fields with his metal detector.
But yesterday, the father-of-two from St Albans was arrested on suspicion of digging up the weapons without permission, and his beloved museum was taken to a farmer’s field and blown up.
Police officers with a search warrant raided Mr Tissington’s semi-detached home in Windmill Avenue, St Albans, at 8am yesterday morning after a tip off.
Inside the garage, officers found heavy artillery shells, gas masks, rifles, bullets, military uniforms, a British flag and a Vickers machine gun.
Nearby houses were evacuated while army bomb disposal officers were called in to examine the collection. Yesterday afternoon, all the artefacts were taken to a nearby farmer’s field, where they were destroyed.
Mr Tissington was arrested on suspicion of stealing some of the weapons from fields belonging to English Heritage, including a prisoner of war camp six miles from his home.
Andrew Robertshaw, a military historian, claimed enthusiasts with metal detectors were putting themselves and others in danger by hunting for explosives without permission.
“It’s clear that this is someone who has no idea of what they are dealing with,” he said.
“A year ago, two guys were killed messing around with shells like these.
“After the war, the army simply buried a lot of these weapons in the ground. It’s very easy to find, and these guys turn up, dig it out of the ground and take it away. It’s lunacy.”
Calling themselves the World War History Group, Mr Tissington and a group of friends spent their weekends travelling to sites around the UK and to the battlefields of Europe, searching for armaments hidden in the soil.
On his Facebook page, he proudly displays heavy duty shells, guns and bullets he has detected and dug up.
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One of his friends, who did not wish to be named, denied that Mr Tissington’s collection was unsafe, and said the authorities were “killjoys”.
He said: “Alan’s collection was worth thousands and now they’ve gone and blown it all up in a bloody field. It’s ludicrous. What is good is it just rotting in the ground?
“I go out with Alan all the time, and we’re almost always in a site where we’ve got permission.”
The friend claimed Mr Tissington had been “shopped” to the police by fellow collectors who were jealous about the size of his museum.
“Alan’s got the best collection in Europe I reckon, and people don’t like it,” he said.
“On his Facebook page, people were posting pictures of themselves trying to deactivate live ammunition, so he banned them. It’ll be one of those who called police. I’ve heard of it happening before.”
A spokesman for English Heritage claimed the blowing up of Mr Tissington's collection sent out a “clear message” to other would-be illegal metal detectors.
But Mr Tissington’s wife of 22 years, Helen Tissington, 48, claimed the authorities had gone “way over the top”.
She said: “It’s just his hobby, he’s not hurting anyone. He’s been collecting since he was ten years old.
“Alan has his children and his pets in the house. He’s not going to risk their lives for the sake of his hobby.
“Personally, I have no interest in it at all. He comes in and shows me something shiny and I say ‘That’s lovely dear’, and go back to watching EastEnders.”
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