Emily Dugan of The Independent profiles the tree-sitters and eco-warriors who have spent nine years living in the trees at Stanton Moor in the Peak District National Park. Their goal? To stop the planned re-opening of two mines that threatened the Nine Ladies stone circle.

The Nine Ladies

Now awaiting the official letter from Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears confirming their victory, the tree-sitters spend their last days saying goodbye to what has become their home, and wondering how they will re-enter normal English life.

One of the tree-houses.

One hopes that the admirers and supporters of the Nine Ladies will be able to help the protesters re-acclimate to the modern world after living a Robin Hood lifestyle for nine years*. This is truly a group who “walked the talk” of wanting to save England’s heritage. To read more about the history of this protest you can head over to the Nine Ladies Collective web site, or the Nine Ladies page at The Modern Antiquarian. As for Stancliffe Stone, the company that wanted to re-open the Lees Cross and Endcliffe quarries, they will be allowed to extend an existing quarry in exchange.

* I hope I’m not the only one who noticed the mythic resonances of protesters sacrificing nine years of their lives in order to protect the Nine Ladies.

Some new developments have arisen in two stories I recently reported on for this blog. First is the case of John J. Anderson, who I wrote about in my March 9th (Pagan) News of Note. Anderson is charged with the murder of teenager Natasha Miller, and his defense team moved to have his confession thrown out of court. During the confession Anderson described himself as a “Druid” and a that Miller was a “Wiccan”.

“…for hours he talked about religion … and his life as a druid – part of an ancient pagan Celtic religion. He placed Miller’s body in the river, he said, for religious reasons, to reunite her with the spirit of water … he attempted to paint himself as a scholar of the universe and told investigators he had studied religion since age 5. Miller, he insisted, was a Wiccan – a paganist – who practiced witchcraft.”

Now it seems that the judge has ruled that a large chunk of his confession be thrown out due to the police refusing to stop the interrogation after Anderson requested it be stopped.

“Judge Nanci Grant said police should have stopped interrogating John J. Anderson, a 24-year-old Wixom man who is accused of murdering Natalie Miller and dumping her body in the river, after he tried to stop the interrogation after several hours. The ruling means that many details – including information police say they have on why he would have killed Miller – will be lost to a jury.”

This will make conviction of Anderson harder, though the police still have access to hours of statements by the alleged killer.

The second story involves a somewhat more law-abiding group of Druids and Pagans that I reported on five days ago. In the original blog post, I talked about how a reporter did a nice story on the Weymouth-based Dolmen Grove and how they were planning a ritual for a ancient felled tree at the “Nine Ladies” stone circle at Winterbourne Abbas.

“A 200-year-old tree at the centre of worship by druids and witches has been chopped down to size after it became diseased. The 80ft beech at Winterbourne Abbas has been reduced to a 10-metre stump by English Heritage because of fears it would die and fall over. The tree has become a dominant feature at the site, famous for the ancient stone circle standing beneath its branches. Now the Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, will perform a ‘re- balancing’ ritual in mourning for the loss of the tree and to mark a new beginning for their holy site.”

Now that same group are facing a string of threats and abuse, perhaps due to the increased publicity they have received recently.

“Pagans in Dorset claim their growing popularity is making them a target for threats and abuse. The Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, says a dead bird with a noose around its neck was left on the windscreen of its van. Then nails were left under the wheels of the van the night after a music gig.”

Despite the threats, the group still plans to go forward with their ritual for the tree on March 24th. The article itself has created quite a back-and-forth in the comments section, generating over sixty comments, many with the typical “why do you dress funny” put-downs. Luckily, unlike nails in tires or dead animals left on vehicles, you can always choose to ignore stupidity and ignorance on web sites.

The Dorset Daily Echo has a nice piece up about how a local Pagan group dealt with the death and removal of a 200-year-old tree that rested in the middle of the famous “Nine Ladies” stone circle at Winterbourne Abbas.

“A 200-year-old tree at the centre of worship by druids and witches has been chopped down to size after it became diseased. The 80ft beech at Winterbourne Abbas has been reduced to a 10-metre stump by English Heritage because of fears it would die and fall over. The tree has become a dominant feature at the site, famous for the ancient stone circle standing beneath its branches. Now the Dolmen Grove, a Weymouth-based druid group, will perform a ‘re- balancing’ ritual in mourning for the loss of the tree and to mark a new beginning for their holy site.”

Chris Walsh, Arch Druid of the Dolmen Grove, seems very respectful of the site and speaks eloquently about the group’s plans for the ritual honoring the ancient tree.

“I think that many trees have come and gone in the 3,000 to 4,000 years the stones have been here and we accept there has to be change and renewal in nature … We believe in the spirits of the land and we want to honour the tree by putting it in peace with the elements – a re-balancing of nature’s forces. We cannot be certain but we believe that ancient people met and worshiped at the stones very much as we do today. We’re very respectful of the land and anyone who visits the stones and we like to see them maintained.”

This is a nice bit of reporting that respectfully deals with the importance of stone circles (and the natural world) for British Pagans and Druids without the usual sarcasm or pull-quotes from local Christian clergy. This may partially be due to a sympathetic journalist, but I think having a media-savvy Pagan or two didn’t hurt.