The new Swampy… and the second battle of Hastings

 

It seems that the road lobby is on the march again (or should that be driving…). A link road planned between Bexhill and Hastings has meant a whole new generation of young eco-protesters (known as the ‘Combe Haven Defenders’) have taken to the trees in order to thwart the chainsaws and the bailiffs. The road will destroy the unspoilt Combe Haven Valley damaging an ancient woodland home to protected species.

It takes me back to the mid/late 1990’s when I did a few assignments for magazines (including I remember one for the Independent on Sunday Magazine on the Land is Ours group) about the environmental protests taking place under a previous Conservative government. My abiding memory is of descending a ramshackle tunnel somewhere under Twyford and crawling on my belly for ten yards underground to photograph a young man who’s arm was secured into a concrete pillar (see below). I never realised that I was a tiny bit claustrophobic until that point and was very relieved to get the picture and retreat the way I had come.

Here are some images from the archives.

 

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UK – Berkshire – An environmental protester plays a guitar outside his tent at Twyford Down in a protest camp opposing the building of the M3 motorway

 

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UK – Berkshire – A protester cemented into an underground chamber to prevent the M3 motorway development

 

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UK – London – An eco-protester from the group The Land is Ours on a squatted site in Wandsworth owned by Guiness

 

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UK – Berkshire – A protester in a tree protesting the M3 motorway development

 

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UK – London – An eco-protester from the group the Land is Ours salutes the sun  on a squatted site in Wandsworth