CAMPAIGNERS fighting further quarrying near a site of historical interest will demonstrate at a museum at the weekend.

Members of Heritage Action, angry at plans by Tarmac Northern to extend its Nosterfield Quarry, close to Thornborough Henges, near Masham, North Yorkshire, will protest outside the Buried Treasures exhibition, staged at Manchester Museum.

They are unhappy at Tarmac Northern's sponsorship of the event.

Heritage Action spokesman George Chaplin said: "This is a marvellous exhibition and we hope as many people as possible will see it, but we want them to also reflect on who is sponsoring it and why.

"Tarmac Northern are applying to quarry the surroundings of Thornborough Henges, in North Yorkshire, and the buried archaeology there is treasure as well.

"We find Tarmac's behaviour breathtakingly hypocritical."

Tarmac chief executive officer Robbie Robertson said he was saddened and surprised that Heritage Action should want to picket the exhibition.

"Careful investigation, recovery and recording of artefacts is an on-going feature of our quarrying operations," he said.

"Through working with professional archaeologists, we believe that we have added significantly to knowledge and understanding at Nosterfield and other sites across the UK.

"At Nosterfield alone, we have spent in excess of £400,000 on detailed archaeological work covering more than 100 acres of land."

He said this included intensive field work, geophysical surveys, trial excavations, sieving and sampling, radio carbon dating and logging of all finds on a website that people could view.