He became a nationally known figure after spending a week in a complex series of tunnels dug in the path of a new extension to the A30 road in Fairmile, Devon, resisting attempts at eviction by police. Several people took part in the protest, but Swampy was the last one evicted. Swampy was originally from Newbury, Berkshire, the site of the protest over the Newbury bypass in 1996.
Swampy's subsequent fame included an appearance on the BBC comedy current affairs quiz Have I Got News for You, where he became (briefly) the show's youngest ever panellist. He later took part in another tunnel protest intended to prevent the building of a second runway at Manchester Airport, and has also been involved with the Trident nuclear submarine protest camp at Faslane, Scotland. In 2006, Swampy was living with his partner and their three children in a yurt, a dome-shaped tent in 'Teepee Valley', a remote New Age commune near Llandeilo in West Wales.
Swampy's antics were parodied in a Judge Dredd comic featuring "Spawny" who impeded the construction of a "Spaceport" in the same manner as the real-life eco-warrior. The story ends with the construction continuing unimpeded, with Spawny apparently being sealed alive under the concrete foundation.
See also
External links
- Salon.com - article from 1997.
- Log of Swampy's A30 protest
- BBC about the Manchester Airport protest
- Another article about Manchester Airport
- Third Battle of Newbury in the press
- Guardian - Whatever happened to Swampy? (2003)
- Guardian - Whatever happened to ... Swampy? (2006)
- Sunday Mirror - EXCLUSIVE: SWAMPY FOUND'' (2006)
- Tech Central Station - Sod Off, Swampy.
- CBRD biography
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Saturday June 14, 2008 at 00:50:11 PDT (GMT -0700)
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