Campaigners have now been camped out for a year in a bold bid to save a Chorlton beauty spot. Ryebank Fields have been at the forefront of a laborious battle that has been ongoing for more than 25 years to stop development.
While those who set up the camp had no idea what to expect of the fight for Ryebank Fields, a year on and the fight to save the save the fields is still in limbo.
However, what started off as tents and a watch tower has grown into an entire eco-house, complete with a bike shed, solar panels, and now, a kitchen garden.
The house itself has WiFi, a log burner and a system for water collection. There are also separate buildings for a kitchen and bathroom.
Despite the homely feel that the camp creates, it can be entirely removed and taken down in a matter of days.
Ryebank Fields, which sit between Chorlton and Trafford, are owned by Manchester Metropolitan University [MMU] and have been since the 1970s. Back then, it was used for sports and recreation but over the years has been left to rewild and now boasts incredible biodiversity.
The fields are home to an aspen grove, a collection of oak trees planted on the millennium and home to part of the ancient Nico Ditch. Due to the biodiversity of Ryebanks, if sold, MMU has specified that 'the development will deliver a net biodiversity gain'.
Stephen Fernley is, arguably, the longest resident of Ryebank Fields Community Camp having spent more than 200 nights there in the last year. He spoke to the Manchester Evening News about his time on the camp and what the future looks like for the campaign.
He said: “We’re staying here until we win, as long as it takes. I don’t mind staying here forever.
“I’d be happy to spend the rest of my life here. The most exciting thing is we’ve started growing our own food and we’ve got a pond made out of a bathtub.
“The hope is making the bit of space that we’re looking after as pleasant as possible. The other benefit of a garden is that it’s another way for people to get involved.
“We’re trying to maximise community involvement. With campaigns like this, people drop out and go to other parts of the country, so we’re always keen to get more people involved.
“So what happens when we actually, full on, win, but that’s probably a long way off at the moment.
“Thinking about speculatively, we do make more use of the land than MMU. They’ve basically just left it alone and not done anything with it. So after about 10 years, we would have reasonable grounds to say we’re in effective possession of it.
“At this point, it’s a community hub, and we have a better claim to it than they do.”
The decision to stay and camp on the fields came after a gathering was held on the fields last year described as an ‘urgent’ call to action over what was thought to be an imminent sale of the land.
On April 24 2021, more than 200 people gathered and created a ‘symbolic ring of protection’ to show the importance of the fields. Last year, the event co-organiser Julie Ryan told the Manchester Evening News how the threat of a sale had created momentum for the campaign.
She said: “Some of us have walked on this land for over fifty years back when it was a clay pit and it’s always been open access to the public. But, as the land is now on the open market and is in imminent danger of being sold.
"Because of that, MMU are planning to fence the fields up to stop us from being able to use it."
The date of April 24 itself was symbolic as it marks the anniversary of the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout. The event in 1932 saw 500 ramblers walk from Hayfield to Kinder Scout to show how people in England and Wales were being denied access to walk in areas of open country.
This year, the 90th anniversary of the Mass Trespass of Kinder Scout, is being celebrated alongside the first birthday of the camp with a weekend of live music, craft activities and mass trespass on the fields.
Paul Harnett, a member of the Friends of Ryebank Fields who ran in the 2021 Chorlton by-election on a stand to save the fields, explained what the group’s end point will be.
He said: “We need legal guarantees that this land is for the public and will remain green space. The camp is going to stay until we get legal assurance that it will be green space, open to the public and that’s it.
"If the environmental studies department of MMU, and indeed, the University of Manchester want an interest in it, that’s fine, we can accommodate that. They probably thought that we’d wither away over the winter”.
“We’ve had quite a few journalism students [from MMU] come down, the indications are that the architecture department, next month, is going to start on an exhibition space here.”
Students from universities across Manchester have used the campaign for Ryebank Fields as a tool for learning. From architecture students studying the eco-house and offering to build an exhibition space, to journalism students looking into community news. However, MMU have confirmed that this is down to individual students as opposed to the university itself using the camp as an educational tool.
Currently, MMU have not chosen a developer to build the proposed 120 homes on the site, however they have drawn up a shortlist of four developers and a final decision is expected over the next few months.
When asked how the community, protesters and the camp will respond to the developer being chosen, Paul said: “There’s going to be chaos. They’ll want to put as much onto the developer as they can and I suspect the developer will be like ‘we don’t need this s***’.”
“They [MMU] originally said they were appointing a developer last May, which is why the camp came and to this day they still haven’t. Of course, the camp will claim responsibility for that, but we can’t prove it.”
A Manchester Metropolitan University spokesman said: “Manchester Metropolitan University remains in discussions to sell land at Ryebank Fields in Chorlton to a suitable developer as part of our strategy to consolidate onto a single, sustainable, city campus. No preferred developer has yet been appointed. We expect to appoint a preferred developer in the near future.
“We are conscious of the presence of tents and other structures on the site. We have repeatedly advised members of the public not to enter the site because of the potential health and safety risks. Ryebank Fields is private land and any unauthorised access constitutes an act of trespass.
“We note the comment from the campaigners that the camp has been used as a source of ‘educational material’. Individual students may have gone to the site, whether to write an article for the student website or to show support for the campaigners, but the University is not using the site for ‘educational material’.”
Read more about Ryebank Fields: The people who have been camping out for seven months in Manchester beauty spot
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