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Nine Ladies of Stanton Moor

Stone Circle

News

Protesters Dig in to Save Landscape from Quarry: 'It'll cost millions to get us out'


by John Vidal, environment editor of The Grauniad
14 February 2004

One of Britain's most historic landscapes is about to become the scene of a passionate encounter between conservationists, local communities and industry as protesters start to flock to a small valley in the Peak District national park.

At stake are the long abandoned Endcliffe and Lees Cross quarries at Stanton Lees in Derbyshire. Overgrown with ash, birch and beech trees on steeply sloping land leading up to the bronze age Nine Sisters stone circle ancient monument on the moor above, they have been worked for many centuries on a small scale to provide local stone. But they are about to be massively expanded to provide 3.2m tonnes of some of the most sought-after sandstone in Britain.

Before work can start, however, a battle of the intensity of the road protests at Twyford Down and Newbury in the 1990s looks inevitable. The 32-acre site has been occupied for four years by protesters who have already built more than 25 tree houses and dug a com plex of deep tunnels and defences in stone cavities. After a high court case last week, which gave the Stancliffe Stone company permission to evict them, they expect hundreds of people to join them. ...continues here...
Jane Posted by Jane
15th February 2004ce
Edited 16th February 2004ce

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