<< Events >> Battle of the Beanfield 25th anniversary
Submitted by andyworthington on Saturday, 05 June 2010 Page Views: 34074
EventsCountry: England County: WiltshireInternal Links:
Wednesday June 1st 2010 was the 25th anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield. For those who are unaware of this dark day for British justice and civil liberties, the Battle of the Beanfield took place after a convoy of 140 travellers’ vehicles, containing around 450 men, women and children – including travellers, peace protestors, green activists and festival-goers – had set off from Savernake Forest in Wiltshire in an attempt to establish the 12th annual free festival at Stonehenge.
Andy Worthington writes: They never reached their destination. Eight miles from the Stones they were ambushed, assaulted and arrested with unprecedented brutality by a quasi-military police force of over 1,300 officers drawn from six counties and the MoD. The Stonehenge festival came to an end, and the travellers’ entire way of life was now under threat as the state prepared to introduce new legislation that would aid them in their mission to ‘decommission’ the travellers’ movement and the free festival circuit that sustained it.
Also available is a full-length book about the subject: 'The Battle of the Beanfield'. Edited by Andy Worthington, with photos and contributions by Alan Lodge, Tim Malyon, Neil Goodwin, Gareth Morris, Alan Dearling and others, the book will be published in time for the summer solstice.
'The Battle of the Beanfield' features in-depth interviews with a range of people who were there on the day, including travellers, journalists, landowners and the police, extracts from the police radio log, a hundred photos (including many which have rarely been seen before), chapters on the 1991 Beanfield trial, a description of the making of the documentary ‘Operation Solstice’, and chapters which set the events of the Beanfield in context. These look at the evolution of the free festival scene, new travellers, convoys and peace protestors, ‘raves’ and road protests, the campaigns for access to Stonehenge, and the wider implications of the events of the Beanfield, through increasingly draconian legislation, on civil liberties in the UK.
Andy Worthington is the author of Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion, available from the Megalithic Portal shop, and described by John Hodge of SchNEWS as ‘by far the best bit of modern British social history I’ve seen.’
Alan Lodge's account of the day 25 years ago, with photo gallery. (very slow link as now sourced from Internet Archive)
[Update of 2005 page of from the 20th anniversary, further links in the comments below]
Note: Beanfield, a new play by Shaun McCarthy at The Bike Shed Theatre, Exeter until June 18th, details below
<< Megalithic Portal at the Sunrise Celebration Festival, 4th June, Somerset, UK