NINE LIVES

The Nine Ladies protest camp has finally completely tatted down and left the site after nine and a half years. The occupation started in 1999 to stop the destruction of Stanton Moor through the re-opening of two dormant coal quarries within 100 metres of the Nine Ladies stone circle in the Peak District, Derbyshire.

The protesters had said that once they’d received it in writing that the quarry was definitely a non-starter, they would leave after three months. This confirmation came on January 18th this year in the form of a joint statement from the Peak District National Park Authority, Marshalls (who took over from original quarry company Stancliffe Stone), and Edward Manners of Haddon Hall who owns the site. With the campaign having saved the twelve hectare site from quarrying, the only concession for the quarry company was a three hectare extension to the nearby Dale View quarry – also owned by the Stanson Estate.
 
Nine Ladies has been the mother of all protest sites in Britain over the past decade. During its time, there’s been an estimated thirty tree houses, which included some amazing eviction-resistant structures such as the three-storey ‘sky raft’ – with a lock-on on top - suspended by polyprop from birch trees in a overgrown old quarry cutting, as well as a caravan suspended in mid-air. There has been over fifty dwellings in total on site. The SchNEWS people who visited the site in 2004 described it as ‘Lord Of The Rings meets Mad Max’.

A long-term Nine Ladies resident told SchNEWS: “We’d like to thank everyone who’s contributed in any way to Nine Ladies. It’s been a long haul with many ups and downs over the years and a real slog to tat down! It’s now rapidly being reclaimed by nature. Hopefully a good precedent has been set with a victorious result for a British protest site so it may inspire more people to get out there and get together”. 

* See also www.bilstonglen-abs.org.uk/r/nineladies