Twenty years after the protests, what is the legacy of the Newbury bypass?

It was the anti-road demonstration that gave birth to a generation of eco-warriors. Those who were there in 1996 tell how the standoff changed the physical and political landscape

Blink and you miss it. Just past the Tot Hill McDonald's, 20ft above the northbound carriageway of the Newbury bypass in Berkshire, an old oak stands over hundreds of young saplings.

Named Middle Oak by people who lived up it for months in the bitter winter of 1996, it is the only physical reminder of the 35 protest camps built high in the trees on the route of the most controversial new road in recent British history.

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