September 2017
The wait continues....meanwhile we continue having messages from abroad, especially one from the Costa Rican rain forest, and our online petition now has 3017 signatures. This is a large number for a campaign focused on a small local piece of land. The population of Pilton is only about 5000, and that number includes children and elderly people in residential care. Also, as we discovered while doing our house to house survey, quite a large number of people in our community prefer not to sign online - we have a paper petition as well for those people to sign.
August 2017
We are still waiting for news....
meanwhile, we have had more messages from abroad and other parts of the UK, go to our blog to see photographs of them (especially ones from Uganda) and the Green Man Festival.
July 2017
We are waiting now to hear when the date of the Planning Committee will be, and as son as we have some information about this we will post it on the Blog and Facebook.
In the meantime, we will once again have a stall at the Green Man Festival, so we hope you will stop by to say hello if you come along.
This link gives more information about the Festival: http://www.piltonfestival.co.uk/index.html
June 2017
Trevor Beer
We were very sad to learn that Trevor Beer has passed away. He supported our campaign because Manning's Pit was important to him, and we now have an extra reason to make sure that he did not support us in vain.
Here is a link to an article in the North Devon Gazette
And also a link
to a letter he wrote to the North Devon Journal
back in 2015.
General Election campaign
We are non-political and have supporters from all parties, so want to make clear that no particular party represents us in any way.Before the election, each candidate gave us a statement about their position on Manning's Pit, which can be seen here.
We were pleased that they all gave us statements of support.
May 2017
The Exhibition continues until May 20th.We are now waiting to find out when the application to build on Manning's Pit will come before the North Devon Council Planning Committee.
April 2017
Exhibition at North Devon Museum
This Exhibition is about the cultural and historical significance of Manning's Pit, and includes works by the eminent Victorian artist Frederick Richard Lee, the story of Benjamin Manning with exhibits including his signature on the Deeds of his house, connections to Saki, the famous short story writer, and Henry Williamson (Tarka the Otter. exhibits from more recent times include a stunning painting by Mark Manning (also known as Zodiac Mindwarp.)
March 2017
Consultation Period closed March 16th.
You can see our consultants reports on the Home Page.
The response from local people was tremendous, over 250 letters of objection were received, and can read on the Council website.
http://planning.northdevon.gov.uk/copyright.asp?AltRef=62524&ApplicationNumber&AddressPrefix=windsor+Road&submit1=Go
More information here:
March 2nd Town Council Meeting
Two Reports on our Blog:
https://manningspit.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/full-report-on-town-council-meeting/
https://manningspit.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/town-council-members-support-local-people/
February 2017
The phoney war is over, the application is in. Perhaps
it is Round One to us, and the speculators who bought
the Manning's Pit fields have been intimidated by
the enormous level of public resistance to the plans
displayed in their Exhibition last year. From an
original suggestion of 138 houses they have now put in
plans for 41.
Make no mistake, though, these plans would mean the
destruction of Manning's Pit. They strike at the heart
of this magical place that we all love so much, they
would drive a road right though the buttercup fields
that delight us all each spring, carve out earth from
the slopes and change the very shape of the field, where
generations of Pilton and Bradiford residents have
walked and played.
How appropriate it is that in the week that the plans are made public, our Save Manning's Pit Banner is playing a prominent part in the popular Pilton Pantomime. Manning's Pit is our Hampstead Heath, our Primrose Hill, our Central Park, our special place, and we will do everything in our power to keep it safe.
Go to our Planning
Application page to find out how to object to
these plans.
January 2017
Headline News:
We are thrilled to have received a message of support
from Michael Morpugo, the former Children's Laureate,
founder of "Farms
for City Children", and writer of "War
Horse" and many other wonderful Children's books.
He said, in a card received this week, that he
supports our " brave and important effort to stem the
tide of intrusion into our precious places." John
Norman and Harold Murch, who both played in the
Manning's Pit fields back in the late 1940s and early
1950s, visited Michael Morpugo recently. Harold
Murch has connections with the Farms for City Children
(he has taken children from Birmingham down to the
farm.) John is of course one of the stars in our film
"The Magic of Manning's Pit." Their visit inspired
us to write to Michael Morpugo, and we are delighted to
have his reply, to add Literary support to the support
we have had already from environmentalists James
Lovelock and Jonathon Porritt and - locally - Trevor
Beer.
We like to feel that we can call Manning's Pit "Fields
for Town Children" because that is what they are - a
place where children in our town can play in real
countryside and be in touch with their rural
heritage. Manning's Pit also has important
Literary links because of the fact that Saki, the world
famous Short Story writer, grew up within sight of
Manning's Pit.
Interestingly, there is another kind of Artistic and
Literary link to Manning's Pit through the daughter of
the famous Victorian artist Frederick Richard Lee. He
lived in Broadgate House, which was just across the road
from Saki's house, and his daughter became friendly in
later life with Henry Williamson (Tarka The Otter.) He
dedicated one of his books, The Village Book, to her.
The Second Manning's Pit Art
Exhibition.
When we held our first Exhibition a year ago, we were
still in the dark about whether the option on the
purchase of Manning's Pit would be completed. Only a few
days later the news came that it had been been. Little
did we imagine then that a whole year would go by
without a planning application being submitted, although
of course one could come in at any moment.
Last year we had five artists exhibiting - this year
we had more than double that, and all who came were
impressed with the quality of the work on
show. More than anything, the paintings
demonstrated the love that all the exhibiting artists
feel for this most special place.
The Children's Competition was a great success, and
as, with the adult work, the children showed how much
they cared for Manning's Pit. There were three age
groups, and while one of the most favourite subjects was
the rope swing, many of the works submitted demonstrated
careful observation and a feeling for the
landscape. Peter Heaton -Jones, the MP for North
Devon, presented the prizes to the Children on Saturday
morning, and spoke in support of the campaign to the
assembled group of families and visitors.
He said how impressed he had been by the number of
window posters and signs on display in Piton as he
walked to the Hall from his car. This was
interesting as he did not know that there were fewer up
than normal as many have been temporarily taken down,
either to make way for Christmas decorations or because
they were faded and needed refreshing before going up
again!
In the photo below - Peter Heaton-Jones, MP for
North Devon, presenting his prize to Dylan Knox Bulpett,
winner of 1st prize in age group 6-11.
For more about the Exhibition, click on the photo
below:
Also we have had more Save Manning's Pit messages from
abroad including Boston,
Coney Island, New
York, Miami
and Little
Havana in the USA as well as Puerto
Rico, St.
Kitts and some
dancers on a beach in Haiti.
We haven't quite covered the whole world, but
we are not doing badly, considering how small Pilton and
Bradiford are! There remain a few gaps, and we are
hoping for messages from Africa, Russia and South
America this coming year. One of our supporters was in
Antarctica in the spring last year, but set off before
we had the idea of asking people to send
Save Manning's Pit messages back! If you find a
photograph missing on the map, let us know - for some
reason they sometimes vanish again after they have been
uploaded safely.
December 2016
We remain, as we have been since March 2015, in what we
call a phoney war situation. The London-based speculators
who bought Manning's Pit have yet to put in a planning
application. One could come in at any day.
Save Manning's Pit messages continue arriving from all
over the world. In recent weeks we have received a number
of messages
from Australia,
including one from Graham
Manning of Coogee, NSW, some from
Cumbria, from Cleeve Hill,
Cheltenham, from Bristol, including one from the
Bear Pit, from Taunton,
from the Republic
of Ireland and the Giant's
Causeway in Northern Ireland, and
Acton, Massachusetts,USA as well as the beautiful
one above from two very special Pilton children visiting
Father Christmas in
Lapland.
And we must mention this message that comes on the back of Gordon, who lives in Pottington, Barnstaple, and runs round Manning's Pit.
November 2016
November 16th
The
Youing's Drive application is approved. This is a very
different piece of land from Manning's Pit as it is
inside the development boundary, but it was purchased
by Summix Ltd, who also purchased Manning's Pit.November 4th
Peter Vaughan comes to Manning's Pit again - read more
Peter with group members
October 2016
It is nearly a year since the Manning's Pit fields were sold at auction. A planning application has not as yet been submitted although of course it could come at any moment. As soon as it does so we will inform you of any action that you can take to help.Meanwhile, we need to raise funds to commission expert help to fight an application. If you can help in any way, either by donating, or pledging support for when the time comes, please contact us by email: manningspit@gmail.com.
September 2016
John and Mary Breeds came to do a Moth Survey on Sunday September 11th Their enthusiasm for all forms of wildlife and plants is inspirational and we are so grateful to them for coming along to do this for us. A select group of supporters joined us as the surveys were set up close to the Manning's Pit bridge, and we were all fascinated by the moths and insects that we saw. Tim Saunders was so inspired that he wrote a poem!The Breeds run wonderful wildflower walks on Braunton Burrows on summer evenings and several of our supporters have been along on them and can highly recommend them.
August 2016
We have messages of support from a Chinese Panda Sanctuary, from the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Spain, Majorca, the Lakes, Corfu in Greece and other holiday destinations. See them all on our map and Facebook Page photos.
July 2016.
The Phoney War is not in fact over, despite our previous post below.The speculators who have bought Manning's Pit have not yet put in an actual planning application. We have no idea when it will come, although we do know that they have been doing various surveys in the fields.
What we do know is that support for our fight to keep these fields safe for future generations to enjoy has grown and grown, both locally and further afield, as the map of messages and posters, and the petition both demonstrate so vividly.
