Nine Ladies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nine Ladies ( ) is a Bronze Age stone circle located on Stanton Moor, Derbyshire, England. Part of the Peak District National Park, the site is owned by English Heritage and is often visited by tourists and hill walkers. Druids and pagans occasionally celebrate summer solstice there.
There are nine surviving stones in the circle, but excavations have shown that there were once at least ten and possibly eleven. The small "King Stone" lies forty metres from the circle and is clearly visible from it.
[edit] Quarry protest
The site has been the focus of a long-running environmental protest.
In 1999 Stancliffe Stone Ltd submitted a planning application re-open two dormant quarries (Endcliffe and Lees Cross) on the wooded hillside beside Stanton Moor. The proposed quarry was only 200 m from Nine Ladies, on land owned by Haddon Hall estate and leased to Stancliffe stone.
A local protest group SLAG (Stanton Lees Action Group) was set up to oppose the quarry. The group was joined by environmental protestors who set up a long-running and controversial protest camp. They built many tree houses, from which the inhabitants are hard to evict. The protestors defied a court eviction order in February 2004, and continue to occupy the site.
In 2004 the High Court classified the two quarries as dormant. This decision was appealed but the classification was upheld in June 2005[1]. This means that the quarries cannot re-open until the Peak District National Park Authority agrees on a set of working conditions for them.
[edit] Latest planning application
The latest planning application has dropped the proposal to quarry the hillside, but instead to expand the existing quarry.[2]
[edit] External links
- Nine Ladies information at English Heritage
- Nine Ladies Anti-Quarry Campaign
- Guardian Article: Eco-warriors sense victory in battle to protect Nine Ladies
