October 2019 A new banner goes up, following the news that Manning's Pit is for sale, and we launch our campaign to Buy Manning's Pit The Friends of Manning's Pit Who we are:
A group of local residents who have come together to
save these much loved fields for future generations
to enjoy |
For up to date news:During the fund raising campaign, from now on go to our News Page.
October 2019With the news that Manning's Pit is for sale, we launched
our Fund raising Campaign on Friday October 18th.
The day began with an early meeting in the fields
themselves when Radio Devon Reporter Angela
Kalwaites arrived to interview us.
Saturday finished the launch weekend, with another Party in Pilton Church Hall, and a great time was had by all. We were treated to a preview showing of Ty Redif's new film, which is now on our website front page, and that was a great success. It was very special having a film made by someone who has grown up close to Manning's Pit, and feels real passion about the fields, which translated into a powerful film. Many of the prizewinners of our various competitions were there on the night, and took their bows when our secretary Chris Bulpett read out something of a Review of the last 4 years. Alex Meller read his poem (he was a 12 and Under Prize winner in the Poetry competition) and Ryan Vowles made it finally, having rushed from a train. He read his Prize winning poem, and finished with the new words - Together we can Buy Manning's Pit, to a big cheer. Martin Haddrill added two more verses to his song, which
he sang again, to more applause, and the evening ended
with everyone feeling very happy and enthused. So it was onwards and upwards as we wrestled with last
minute changes that had to be made due to a change of
online platform, and a few other problems that needed
sorting. As with everything else we have done, it is a
learning experience and we have never done fund raising on
this scale before. One thing we do know, if passion
will get us over the line when it comes to raising the
money, we have more than enough passion to get us there. Here's a lovely photo of Ty Redif |
Bradiford, a charming and unusual window poster |
Stuti Billore, from New Delhi, who sent us poems and photos |
Gail Cole and her children, from
the Falkland Islands
|
Another attractive window poster
in Pilton Street
|
February has been a somewhat quieter month campaign-wise
and unlike last year it did not end with snow. It looks
likely now that this will be a snow-free year as far as
Manning's Pit is concerned but we have had some beautiful
frosty morning over the winter, and can now look forward
to spring as the splendid show of hazel catkins in the
fields demonstrates.
February is Panto month, and this year's performance was
a special one, with many Manning's Pit supporters playing
important roles, both on stage and back-stage. Manning's
Pit was mentioned more than once and this time rather than
the banner, a Save Manning's Pit T shirt made an
appearance.
We are now back in what we previously called the
phoney-war state, waiting to see what the owners of
Manning's Pit do next. They appear to be waiting too (the
term land-banking is often used when speculators purchase
land and then do nothing with it,) That is their
right, and maximising their profit is what they are about.
We hope that as time goes by they will decide to cut their
losses and give the local community a chance to purchase
Manning's Pit
Catkins in Manning's Pit, February 2019
The Presentation evening for the Poetry Competition was held at St.Anne's Chapel in Barnstaple, a small but very attractive venue which is run by The Plough Arts Centre. Our campaign has a link with this building though the artist F R Lee - there is a plaque on the outside of the chapel in memory of his brother, the architect Thomas Lee who died while swimming - or possibly surf-boarding - at Mortehoe.
You can read a full report of the occasion which was a great success on this page, along with videos of the prizegiving and many of the winners reading their poems. We would like to give special thanks to Julia Bird, our Judge, who came down for the occasion and David Weeks (Executive Director of The Week Magazine) who gave out the prizes. The event was also attended by the Mayor (who had to leave early and it not therefore in the photographs) and Brian Norman, whose poem The Battle of Manning's Pit gave us the initial idea for the competition.
The Results of the Inaugural Manning's Pit Poetry Competition were announced on December 30th.
The first prize in the Adult section went to Mark
Totterdell from Exeter, who is already an
established prize winning poet and was the Judge for the
Exmoor Society Dark Skies Poetry Competiion. Second was
Frances Corkey Thompson from Ilfracombe and third
Mark Haworth-Booth from Swimbridge.
.
The prize winner in 12-18 Category was Ryan Vowells, who
lives in Pilton, close to Manning's Pit. Second and third
prizes went to Holly Cooke and Lily Gentry from Filton
College in Glos.
The Under 12 prize went to two boys who wrote their poem
together, Theo and Toby Lawrence. They live in the house
that was once called Broadgate Villa, where Saki grew up,
and they love Manning's Pit just as he must have done.
Second was Vincent Burton from West Buckland School and
third was Alex Meller, who lives in Pilton.
We are thrilled with the response we have had from both
the local community and further afield, with entries from
the North of England and Scotland and international
entries too, most notably from India, as noted earlier.
Meanwhile, December was a quietish month, giving us time
to take stock of our achievements so far, and have
thoughts about the future. We have a number of projects
already in mind, the most exciting of which is an
Exhibition in Pilton Parish Hall that will take place over
the Festival weekend in July. This Exhibition will focus
on the environmental and ecological aspects of Manning's
Pit and the Bradiford Valley, and the Church will also be
involved. Nigel Dilkes, the vicar of St. Mary's Church in
Pilton, is a trained botanist with a special interest in
the enviroment and his input will be very much
appreciated..
Following on from the news that the Local Plan had been
adopted came the news that the 8 week period in which
Summix Ltd could ask for a Review into the Asset of
Community Value listing had passed without any such
request. While we can only guess at their plans, it
is likely that they realise they have little chance of
getting anywhere with a new planning application for the
next five years. So, as we say repeatedly, we have
won several battles, but we have not won the war until
Manning's Pit is owned by the local community or an
organisation that can be trusted to keep it permanently
safe.
The way ahead - we will have more to say about that as
time goes by, but we are not going to rest on our laurels.
We have more to do to establish Manning's Pit even more
strongly as a place of special importance with its
environmental attributes, its historical and cultural
links and perhaps more than anything its place at the
heart of our community.
This month we had our Big Autumn Party, which was great
fun, and very well attended on a bitterly cold night. It
was a chance to meet old and new friends, as usual the
amount of food and drink that our supporters produced was
quite staggering, and we all enjoyed ourselves. The
highlight of the evening was the first performance of
Martin Haddrill's new song for Manning's Pit, which is
now embedded on our Home Page.
The Inaugural Manning's Pit Poetry Competition closed on
the last day of this month, and we are thrilled with the
numbers of entries received. They go off to London to be
judged anonymously by Julia Bird. The results will be
announced on our website and there will be a Presentation
Evening at St. Anne's Chapel on Saturday January
12th. Julia Bird will be coming down from London for
this event.
We have received entries from across Britain, and also
some from abroad. We were especially pleased to receive
one from India, from Miss Stuti Billore of New Delhi.
Stuti has become friends with several supporters on
Facebook and sent us a most beautiful Save Manning's Pit
poster.
On Monday night, October 29th, the Joint Local Plan for North Devon and Torridge was adopted, which is very good for anyone who cares about the future of Manning’s Pit, which is outside the development boundary. Following on from the listing of Manning’s Pit as an Asset of Community Value, it now has further protection.
You can read more about this here:
https://www.northdevongazette.co.uk/news/north-devon-and-torridge-joint-local-plan-adopted-1-5757055
Entries for our Poetry Competition continue arriving.
Manning's Pit bakes in the sun, but it is
always a delight to walk in the cooling shade of the
river.
July in Pilton means
Green Man Day, and we had our usual stall outside
Mr Manning's old house.
We were able to tell people about the
Nomination Form we have handed in to North Devon Distric
Council, asking for Manning's
Pit to be made an Asset of Community Value.
We have also adopted a Constitution and
our policies
are up on the website.
Back in April our solicitor wrote to
Summix Ltd to inform that we would be interested in
purchasing the land. Sadly. we are still - - three
months later - waiting for a reply from them..
Our stall in Pilton Street, with the Tree of Love for
Manning's Pit at the front on the left.
Satish Kumar signs our petition!
Yet another celebrity endorsement to add to the
many that we have had before. Satish is the Editor
of Resurgence and Ecologist Magazine, and most famous
for a walk that he did back in 1962, from India to
Europe. He has made many media appearances – including
Desert Island Discs – and is an author as well.
Go to the Blog
again to learn more about Satish.
Yeo Dale Hotel Banner comes down - for the moment.
See the
Blog: for photographs of the occasion.
The banner comes down from the Yeo Dale Hotel balcony for
refurbishment.
Planning Application 62524 has been withdrawn.
On Monday March 5th Summix withdrew their planning application. We do not as yet know why they have done this, and we cannot be sure that they will not put in another one, or sell the land on to other speculators/developers.More snow:
There was snow again in March and, as always
happens, locals were out in force with theri sledges -
on Sunday March 18th they were there from 7am until
dusk!
The wait for news of the Planning Meeting date
continues....
The Coffee
Morning on February 24th is a big success.
We are excited to learn that that Dr
Sandie Byrne, author of
The Unbearable Saki, has signed our Petition.
Meanwhile, excitement builds when the weather forecast suggests that we might have snow in Manning's Pit at last.
On the final day of February we woke to a white
wonderland...
After Iceland, here's a Save Manning's
Pit message from a much warmer place : on top of a
Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka.
We have had a fantastic response to our sudden call for extra funds - despite it being so close to Christmas - and our consultants have produced hard-hitting criticisms of Summix's latest submissions - you can read them on the Home Page..
No snow in Manning's Pit, but we had a
chilly message from Iceland:
Messages of support from various parts of the country,
and the world. continue arriving, and we have had an
interesting contact with the Melbourne Public Library in
Australia - three paintings by F R Lee were hanging
there in 1873 when he arrived in Melbourne on his yacht
Linda.
This link gives more information about the Festival: http://www.piltonfestival.co.uk/index.html
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
April 2016North Devon Journal April 7th 2016 |
Supporter Clare waves a Save
Manning's Pit flag on the Arctic ice. See more
of her photos
of the Arctic here, including polar
bears - a real danger while picking up plastic
rubbish on
the ice.
On her return, another Manning's Pit supporter baked this in her honour. The Manning's Pit banner goes on its travels, seen at Tate Modern, Trafalgar Square, the houses of Parliament and Exmouth Rugby Ground Save Manning's Pit messages come to our Facebook Page from Croyde, then Exmouth for the Rugby, North East Scotland , a class of children in Bangkok make a "Save Manning's Pit" banner, a message from the Falkland Islands and the latest message comes from Dubai As news of the film, petition and posters spread, people from further away began to send us messages too. It was notable how many people who signed the petition lived in other parts of the country or abroad, but said they had played in Manning's Pit as children. They cared enough about it still to write to us. Peter Heaton Jones MP and Environment Agency Chief Alan Burrows visit Manning's Pit, report includes a video of Peter Heaton Jones and Christine Lovelock (Friends of Manning's Pit) speaking about Manning's Pit.. http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/environment-agency-chief-visits-braunton-mannings/story-29070206-detail/story.html |
Save Manning's Pit
Posters/Signs and Banners
|
click here to see more
posters |
March 2016The Phoney War is over - The Second Battle of Manning's Pit begins. We finally discovered who the new owners are, property speculators with head office based in London, called Summix Ltd. We have waited since October 27th 2015 to learn what they want to do with Manning's Pit. Now we know, and it is even worse than anything we could have imagined Framptons' plans - for the destruction of Manning's Pit The Public Exhibition was held by Framptons (agents for the new landowners) on Monday 21st March at the Castle Centre, 25 Castle Street, Barnstaple, EX31 1DR, from 3pm - 8pm. Little did they know it was also going to be the venue for the launch of Martin Kemp's wonderful film "The Magic of Manning's Pit" - see the film embedded on the home page. Below are some photographs from our marathon 5 hour long decoy demonstration. It was designed as a relay demonstration but some noble supporters were there the whole time. |
We had been worried about
whether people would be be able to cope with a five hour
long demonstration, but we shouldn't have been
anxious. Manning's Pit is a place that is special
not just because it is beautiful, not just because it has
a history and is a part of Pilton's heritage, but most of
all because so many people love it, and if standing on a
cold pavement for five hours was what was needed, they
were there for usFebruary 2016 |
North Devon MP Peter Heaton Jones meets
members of our group and walks around the fields. North Devon Gazette Feb 3rd: MP shows support for Pilton's Manning's Pit North Devon Journal: Feb 4th Friends of Manning's Pit get MPs support |
January 2016Exhibition Photographs Exhibition Paintings |
The news came at the end
of January - after rumours to the contrary - that the
new owners had indeed taken up the option on Manning's
Pit. It proved difficult to find out who they
were. The Exhibition about Manning's Pit, that was held in Pilton Parish Hall on the weekend of January 23rd and 24th, was a great success. Thank you to all of those who came, we were very pleased to meet you all. The Exhibition included paintings and sketches of Manning's Pit and the surrounding fields by artists Tim Saunders, Zsuzsa Reynolds, Ann Beer, Margaret Reed and Christine Lovelock. There were also many photographs on Display, plus maps and information about the fields that are under threat. Another part of the Exhibition was a section on the History of Manning's Pit, and included a display of photographs from the Pilton Archive, and information Benjamin Manning himself. We are especially grateful to Margaret Reed for the time she spent researching his life for us. Thanks also to all of those who made cakes, and helped generally, whether with teas or setting up the Exhibition. North Devon Journal report North Devon Gazette Report |
December 2015Our photographs: click on image to see all of them Here is a link to the North Devon Journal report - "Hundreds attend rally" - do look at the Photo Gallery, especially photo 9, which is the one that was used in the Print version of the paper: |
"Rally and March for Manning's Pit" in the centre of Barnstaple, Saturday December 19th, 2015. A great crowd of people from
Bradiford and Pilton came down to support this event,
despite heavy showers, gusting winds, and all the
pressures of this being the last weekend before
Christmas. While rushing around we also managed to
take some shaky photographs, and also to record some
interviews afterwards with the attending local
politicians, which are embedded below.
While we are non-political, we are grateful to have support from local politicians, some of whom came to join us yesterday. They all said they were impressed by what was described as an amazing turn out. in the circumstances (bad weather, busy time). Our MP, Peter Heaton Jones could not come because of prior commitments, but he sent us a very helpful letter of support. We were especially pleased that Sir Nick Harvey, who was MP for North Devon for so many years, was able to come at the last minute (having been away) |
Letter to North Devon Journal about Manning's Pit, from Trevor Beer, MBE. Trevor has kindly given us permission to show the text of his letter (it isn't accessible online) Trevor Beer's website |
November 2015
|
The link below has 18 photos of our first March: Pilton
marches for Manning's Pit - Tony Gussin,North Devon
Gazette, Nov 14 2015
|
The news in September that the Manning's Pit fields
were for sale were a shock to almost everyone in Pilton
and Bradiford. The Pilton Residents Group had been
fighting for several years to stop other building
developments, without success, and they said they could
not fight to save Manning's Pit.
The Manning's Pit fields were outside the development
boundary, and special to the whole community. Someone
had to do something. On Wednesday October 7th The
Friends of Manning's Pit was formed as a group,
and a Facebook Page was set up. but there just wasn't
time - with the level of expertise that we had - to
raise the money and organise everything for a full bid
before the Auction on October 27th.