Fossil Fools Weekend round-up

As part of Fossil Fools Day West Midlands Climate Action decided to support the Huntington Lane Camp against one of the UK’s biggest Fossil Fools; UK Coal, who want to mine 900,000 tonnes of coal at Huntington Lane over a three-year period. The main idea of the Fossil Fools weekend gathering was to get as many people as possible down to the camp over the four days to help with the ongoing construction of the camp. The 230-acre site near the foot of The Wrekin encompasses part of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is also home to the protected scheduled New Works Ancient Monument. The Camp was set up three weeks ago in response to UK Coal felling trees which were part of ancient woodland so they can build a haul road to link the two parts of the site together.

Huntington Lane camp

A day before Fossil Fools Days saw the camp attacked during the night by three loud bangs, which it is thought came from someone either throwing fireworks or an air bomb into the camp. The camp which included young children were terrified after being woken up during the dead of night. One camper said

“It was terrifying, really terrifying. It was in the dead of night, deathly quiet, and then all of a sudden we heard these three thunderous bangs quickly one after the other.”

What to bring for the weekend

As well as bringing any items off the wish list we also recomend bringing some warm clothes as it will be cold, water proofs as it could be wet, wellies/boots as it could be muddy.

Please bring along some water with you, we have incoming large water containers to allow topping up of precious reserves, and loads of people drink loads of water!

If you do not have a tent then we ask that you bring some canvas/tarpaulin and some rope if you can as the more we have the more communal space can be created and the more comfortable, warm and dry we will all be. Please also bring some food if you are able, all contributions are appreciated.

Food is always welcomed!
Tarps & Ropes
Straw/Sawdust/Woodchips to soak up the mud a little
Walkie Talkies
Shelving (old & broken is fine, we have nails)
Metal Storage containers (old biscuit tins are great, but we have this hopefully not too far-fetched vision of a filing cabinet full of fruit & veg

Cargo nets
High quality nails as many of what we have are not quite up to task!
Tent poles (we have a 3/4 man dome tent with no poles that could be made use of)

Another wish list update

A few more items have been added to the wish list

• Walkie Talkies please! With more people on site these would be really useful.
• Metal storage bins for food, the larger the better. We’ve received so many generous donations of food that we now need significantly more storage. Anything would help, even a few old biscuit tins!
• Cargo nets. We could really use a few of these if anyone can help?
• More blankets as we’re expecting a chilly spell this week.
• Nails of all varieties please.

Fossil Fools Weekend

Wishlist update from the camp blog

• The ‘food and tea situation’ is now under control (for the time being!) thanks for all the contributions x
• A wheelbarrow would make life much, much easier!
• Tarps and rope are always in demand, thanks to everyone who has helped out on this front but in this case more is definitely better!
• Gardening tools would be really useful what with the spring being in the air.  Some large-ish pots/garden containers would be nice if anybody has any going begging?
• Rocket stove ‘ingredients’ – stove pipe, elbow, oil drum etc would be a really big help, for the purpose of feeding larger numbers of people with a much more efficient use of firewood!
• Materials for compost toilets. Anything we can use would be great with more people arriving. So far we only have a toilet seat or two -  so really anything would help in this department.
• We’re trying to rig up some form of power  generation on site. If you think you can help with this is any way, whether you can offer skills, advice or materials/equipment, all would be gratefully received.
• Anything else you think might be useful.
• You lovely people! Thanks again for all your support so far, please come and visit if you can. Free camping in an AONB – bring your friends!

As always please email defendhuntingtonlane(at)hushmail.com if you want to offer your support, or call the site phone on 07989 243057. Alternatively of course you could just drop by and share a cuppa

A PDF version of the map with directions and public transport links is now available to download