Daniel Hooper had to work hard for his celebrity status.
Imaginatively named “Swampy” because he claimed to live in a swamp (well, a boggy field), the 23-year-old became a star after he inhabited a small tunnel for seven nights in protest at the proposed construction of the A30 bypass extension at Fairmile, Devon, in the late 1990’s.
Described by one who saw it as a “death trap”, the tight space where Swampy stayed was 18 feet (5.5 metres) underground. Once Hooper emerged from tunnel “Big Momma” on 30th January 1997, he responded to journalists’ questions about why he did it, by saying:
“If I had written a letter to my MP, would you all be here now? I think not.”
Initially, Swampy lived on cold baked beans and Kellogg’s ‘Frosties’ cereal, but for the final four days he mounted a hunger strike until the Under Sheriff of Devon, Trevor Coleman, talked him into coming out before he starved.
Swampy a.k.a. ‘the human mole’ was part of a huge eco-protest that lasted almost 850 days.
For two and a half years, the likes of Swampy, Angel, Animal, Jester, Muppet Dave, and Welsh John, had made the woods north of St. Philip & St. James’ Church, Escot, Devon, their home.
After years of digging, the labyrinth of tunnels reached a depth of 40ft (12.2 metres), across three sites in all. Months were spent designing tree houses and burrows with metal doors. Weeks went by waiting for the authorities, in the form of the police, to strike at any time.
The smaller encampment at nearby Allercombe was the first to go.
Then on Sunday 13th January 1997 so-called “Fort Trollheim” was flattened.
Mr Coleman and a 200-strong army of police and bailiffs approached the camp in dense fog at 3.30am. The activists immediately locked themselves into tunnels as wide as 50-gallon barrels.
But, in the space of eight hours, 17 people were arrested and taken to Heavitree Road police station in Exeter, after they had been chipped free from their obstructive concrete locking devices.
Swampy and his friends at Camp Fairmile warned they would not go down without a fight, however, and it was rumoured more than 100 eco-warriors had by now gathered at the remaining base for a last stand.
But surprise appeared to be the Under Sheriff’s favourite tactic.
Animal, aged 16, just avoided capture when the Under Sheriff made his lightning strike at the final fortress at dawn on Friday 24th January 1997.
Later she recalled: “We were just sitting around the fire eating eggs and baked beans when we heard the ‘arruga’ warning shout, so we leapt up and all dashed down the tunnels.”
Following a well-rehearsed routine, they shut off the main seven-inch-thick steel and wood door and then nailed two secondary doors in place.
Animal said: “I was not frightened. There was a lot of nervous adrenalin, but I was just worried about getting all the doors shut.”
Once inside the maze of tunnels life settled down.
“We managed to sleep quite soundly except on Friday when we were woken twice at three-hourly intervals by what sounded like a loudspeaker,” Animal told the Express and Echo in January 1997.
She was the youngest of the “Fairmile Five” who escaped the long arm of the law and went to ground.
She spent 100 hours down below before emerging and the first thing she did after being released from custody was phone her parents.
Fears someone would be killed in the final showdown had been expressed by professional observers.
One of them, Carol Johnston, told the Express and Echo: “The tunnel system at Fairmile is far more extensive than at other camps. If the authorities treat Fairmile as they did Trollheim, a fatal accident is horribly likely.”
But eviction chiefs denied the claims and, ultimately, no serious injuries were reported during the last crucial days.
But it was with health and safety in mind that survivor Swampy gave up his earthly home.
Swampy had become a household name through his determination and resourcefulness to stay underground longer than any of the other protesters. His friends had all been tempted to the surface with offers of hot coffee and cigarettes during the days following the Fairmile swoop, while he continued to tunnel.
At 8.30pm, Monday 30th January 1997, he ate a few bourbon biscuits and negotiated a telephone call to his mum with the officials, before emerging, blinking, back into the winter moonlight.
“I believe by coming out it was safer for everyone involved,” he said. “I felt we had made our point.”
Yet the events of January 1997 were influential beyond expectations at the time. The A30 protest brought significant attention to environmental concerns and the future tactics to be used by activists to oppose civil infrastructure projects.
Then Under Sheriff of Devon, Trevor Coleman gave off no sense of irritation when he recalled events after the fracas.
He said: “It is not every day you get the chance to work with that number of people and try to weld them into a workable unit.
“Looking back it was pretty successful, and I am pleased to see the road is making good progress.”
At one stage there was an army of 400+ security guards, police and bailiffs involved in trying to remove the campaigners’ camp, incurring substantial costs and delay.
During the protest Exeter’s then-Conservative prospective Parliamentary candidate, Dr Adrian Rogers, called for the tunnellers to be gassed out.
The so-called “Battle of Fairmile” was but one of Swampy’s campaign of serial-opposition. He also protested development of the Newbury Bypass (1996), the construction of Manchester Airport’s second runway (1997-2001), construction at London Heathrow Airport, and ongoing work on High-Speed 2.
[Thanks to contributions from Devon Live and the New Statesman]
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