Manchester Airport's second runway opened 25 years ago, but the £172m hub faced opposition long before planes took off. Celebrity activist Swampy led campaigners during a dangerous protest deep underground for months.
The 'Cakehole' and 'Human Moles'
In 1997, environmental campaigners occupied the site of the new runway in fierce opposition to the planned two-mile concrete runway. Swampy and several others occupied trees and burrowed underground in a hand-built tunnel dubbed the 'cakehole', where they remained for six months.
The underground network was believed to be one of the most complex built at a protest, with campaigners claiming it went 50ft deep. Defences included bolted boilerplate doors. Another tunnel, dubbed The Worm, was reported in the Daily Mirror as a foot high by a foot wide - 'Just enough for a slim man to squeeze through head first with arms outstretched.'
With a ventilation pipe supplying air and enough supplies for six weeks, the activists were dubbed 'human moles' by the press. Photographs show protestors reinforced the tunnels with wooden panels and concrete, but there was barely enough room for one adult to crawl through at a time.
Daily Mirror photographer Frank Parker was reportedly the first outsider to enter the tunnels. "It's like being buried alive," he said. "It's very difficult to move, extremely claustrophobic and takes about 10 minutes to reach the end."
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