Rupert's Valley

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Rupert's Valley is a long valley on the island of St Helena (part of St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha). The valley runs down from the hills to the coastal plain on the west side of the island, and marks the boundary between two districts, Alarm Forest and Longwood.

The valley opens out at the plain at the head of Rupert's Bay. To the north of the valley is Rupert's Hill.

History

From the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy began a long, intensive campaign to suppress the Atlantic slave trade. Many captured slave ships were brought to St Helena: between 1840 and 1872 a Vice-Admiralty court was held on the island for the purpose of trying slavers and condemning their ships. The slaves so liberated from the ships were freed on St Helena and a 'depot' settlement was created in Rupert's Valley. Many however were sick through mistreatment and the conditions aboard the ships and died and were the buried here.

Between 2007 and 2008 extensive archaeological work was carried out in the valley on these Liberated African graveyards in Rupert's Valley, funded by the Department for International Development. The investigations were part of wider environmental studies undertaken in connection with work to build an airport on the island.[1]

The island's first airport was opened in 2016: the inaccessible location though required that for several years materials be landed at a new wharf on Rupert's Bay and hauled up by a new road up Rupert's Valley crossing the whole width of the island.

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