The Battle of Barton Moss

In November 2013 a group of environmental activists set up camp at Barton Moss, Salford to protest against exploratory drilling at IGas’s proposed hydraulic fracturing (fracking) well. The protests involved daily slow walks in front of trucks along Barton Moss Road into the drilling site that lasted until April 2014 when the company stopped drilling. During this period their campaign succeeded in overcoming the resistance of the local council, Greater Manchester Police (GMP), the drilling company IGas and one of the largest landowners in the North of England Peel Holdings - galvanising local activist groups in Greater Manchester and politicizing the wider community.

Having spent 3 to 4 days a week for the duration of the protest documenting the camp and the daily protest walks with photographs and interviews (interviews with protestors have been anonymised) this chapter looks at the impact the protest had and the innovative methods used to achieve its successes.