'On June 1st 1985, a convoy of new travellers, peace protesters, green activists and festival goers set off from Savernake Forest in Wiltshire to establish the 12th annual free festival at Stonehenge.

They never reached their destination.

8 miles from the stones they were ambushed, assaulted and arrested by a quasi-military police force of over 1,300 officers drawn from three counties and the MOD.'

So begins the Battle of the Beanfield. Published to mark the 20th anniversary of that fateful day, this collection of essays, statements and interviews, ably edited by Andy Worthington attempts to make sense of the events of the day and the subsequent implications for alternative and radical culture in the UK.

This highly readable and comprehensive account chronicles one of the most brutal incidents in British policing history.

The book begins with a chapter by Worthington outlining the emergence of the UK free festival scene in the late 60's/early 70's and then continues taking into account the Isle of White Festival, the genesis of Glastonbury, Windsor Free Festival and of course the first Stonehenge Free Festival in 1974.

Outlining the emergence of a new traveller movement which grew alongside the festival scene, he then goes on to describe the numerous cat and mouse confrontations with the police which were occurring with increasing brutality in the early 80's.

This theme is continued in chapter 2 with an interview with Phil Snakesby, a traveller who was present throughout the events of that summer. Speaking about the police raid on Norstell Priory in early Summer '85, in which many travellers were arrested and held without charge for up to fourteen days Snakesby outlines his response to the police at the time:

'I'm complaining to this sergeant that they home is being smashed. They're not searching it - they're smashing it up. And he just scribbled this number on my forehead and the camera went flash and I was dragged away'

Snakesby also describes the harsh treatment being meted out to those in custody:

'Those that were kicking up, if they didn't get hosed down they got a good hiding.'

The next few chapters, which make up the bulk of this book, describe the events that happened on the day itself, June 1st 1985. Including interviews with then ITN journalist Kim Sabido, Observer journo Nick Davies, tory local landowner the Earl of Cadogan and several travellers themselves, with comprehensive accounts from Maureen Stone and Sheila Craig we are presented with a frightening picture of the day, told from different angles.

All of them point to an unprecedented lack of police discipline and general competence, and quite possibly something far more sinister.

In summary, despite an injunction, hundreds of festival goers set off intent on holding the 12th annual festival at the stones. Just north of the A303 a group of several hundred travellers found themselves trapped by police roadblocks.

After the usual rounds of argy bargy with the cops, police proceeded to attack first the front and then the rear of the convoy, using batons to smash windscreens and trash body panelling. This led to one of the larger vehicles at the front to turn off the road, puncturing a hole in the hedge and escaping into an adjacent field. The rest of the drivers followed this initiative, eventually filling a small pasture field with trucks, vans, trailers and over 600 people.

At this point the police commanders issued an order to arrest all of those driving vehicles. Phil Snakesby describes negotiations with the police at the time:

'I asked him if we could go to the alternative site and he said "no" I said can we go back to Savernake and he said "no, you will hand yourself in and be processed" and he gave us a deadline for when we should be doing it.'

What followed was a stand off for several hours. Whilst some younger travellers did on occasion throw stones and hurl abuse, the police and later media claims of people being armed and throwing petrol bombs are without any foundation whatsoever.

As police numbers massed the dreams of a solstice at the stones had faded and the majority of people expressed a desire to just go home. Unfortunately, Lionel Grundy, Wiltshire Assistant Chief Constable had other plans, making it quite clear that there were to be no negotiations and that everybody in the field was to be ‘arrested and processed.’

At 7pm hundreds of police, decked out in full riot gear stormed into the field, forcing the convoy into the now infamous beanfield and ultimately arresting 520 people.

The accounts of this action by the police will reverberate with anyone who has ever seen the chilling naked aggression of cops that have lost self control:

‘as people were stopping, their homes were being systematically broken and the people were battered and taken away’

Phil Snakesby whose vehicle was burnt out on the day, he maintains by police

‘it wasn’t and act of law enforcement, it was a collective act of bullying and it really shocked me to see it’

‘They just crawled over the vehicle with truncheons flailing, hitting anybody that they could see. It was extremely violent and sickening. At that point my photographer got arrested and I myself got threatened and told to leave’

Observer journalist Nick Davies

‘One woman had a baby in her arms, and they grabbed hold of the woman’s hair and started to grab the woman out backwards from the van’

Kim Sabido

'They threw their truncheons. Policemen took off their helmets and hurled them at windscreens. One picked up a large flint, the size of a grapefruit and hurled it through a windscreen which exploded’

‘she said when she held the baby up “look there are babies on this bus, so come in if you must, but have a care” basically. And as she stood there by this large piece of glass a missile from the back of the police ranks hit the windscreen which exploded into a hundred pieces, and the woman and the baby were both covered with flying glass. And that was as appalling a thing as I shall ever see.'

The Earl of Cadogan

These quotes only serve to give a hint of the terrifying events of the day, provided by not just travellers themselves but independent witnesses with no reason to be anything but truthful. The strength of this book is the different voices which are used to tell essentially the same story, but from radically different perspectives.

Worth noting as well, in the interview with Kim Sabido are his revelations of what happened to the footage him and his cameraman shot that day 'I went to the library to look at all the rushes, most of what I thought we'd shot was no longer there, and from what I've seen of what ITN have shown since then, it disappeared, particularly some of the nastier shots'

Commanding Officer on the day, Lionel Grundy has remained unrepentant about the events of that day, however balance is provided in the book by Deputy Chief Constable Ian Readhead who was an inspector in the Hampshire force at the time and is candid in his criticism of both police and travellers:

'We dealt with the day of Beanfield in a tactically naive way. We could have got people killed. You never deploy police officers in a situation where they can get killed.'

Acknowledging the police violence he adds :

'I mean some people who were hurt, I mean hurt by police officers, who were you know, were giving them a bash with their truncheons and that can't be right' DCC Readhead concludes: 'If you believe in a Police Force operating within a democracy, they must operate within the law, otherwise you do not have policing by consent, you have a very different form of policing.'

The book also includes the transcripts of the police radio log of the day (complete with suspicious gaps) which gives an insight into the mindset of the officers on the ground.

Fuelling the suspicions of many, that this was a pre-planned assault by police, one police unit (D18) raises the concern of holiday traffic in the convoy 'which may cause problems with any future plans of ours.'

The rest of the book is largely concerned with an analysis of the consequences of that day, in particular the court case which was brought against the police by 24 of those arrested for unlawful arrest and imprisonment, assault and damage to property.

The interview with esteemed human rights lawyers Lord Gifford QC, who acted for the plaintiffs, is illuminating, particularly in the area of the judges impartiality.

Claiming that the judge supported the police action from the beginning of the case Gifford explain in detail the legal trickery that was used to scupper the case, in particular the central question of whether the police had acted lawfully in arresting everybody on the day. The judge clearly thought they had and made sure the verdict reflected that, regardless of what the jury may have thought.

Although 21 of the 24 plaintiffs won some of their claims they were never to see the damages awarded, as they went to cover the plaintiff’s legal costs which were not awarded by the judge.

The final chapter in the story concerns the making of the film 'Operation Solstice' and is covered in eloquent detail by Neil Goodwin. An inspiring tale, it documents the efforts of two undergraduate film students who became determined that the truth of the day should be known. Despite bleatings from the police this film was eventually aired on Channel 4 and has become a classic of radical film making.

In the final two chapters of this book Andy Worthington attempts to draw conclusions from his and others research into the subject and then finally discusses the legacy of the Battle of the Beanfield.

The central issue, of whether those in charge of the operation incited officers to behave violently and illegally is comprehensively examined. Acknowledging that the police radio logs are not the 'smoking guns' some had hoped for, he refers to the Earl of Cadogans testimony that a senior officer had told him that morning that 'regardless of what happened that day, every single one of the people - all 500 strong or whatever - was going to be arrested before the end of the day.'

Police Support Unit commander Martyn Meeks also admitted, under cross examination that the plan was to arrest everyone 'irrespective of whether they had done anything wrong, beyond being there at the time.'

Worthington, also highly critical of police intelligence and operational decisions on the day concludes that the objectives of the operation were not just to prevent the convoy from reaching Stonehenge, but also to ensure that everybody was arrested. Where this edict came from (and how high up) remains unknown, however it effectively broke the Stonehenge Free Festival and it was many years before anyone got near the stones again on the solstice.

As for the legacy of the beanfield, Worthington outlines how the free festival/party scene has survived from early raves and Spiral Tribe, through the road protest scene and Castlemorton to today’s free party scene which continues, occasionally bloodied, but unbowed throughout ever more oppressive legislation and police brutality.

And here would be my only criticism of the book, whilst Worthington acknowledges but dismisses events like Steart Beach in 2002 where 20,000 gathered (was it really a nature reserve?), he talks of small scale free parties dotted about the country, but in my view underestimates the strength of the movement.

Several events, almost on the scale of Steart Beach have occurred over the last few years, and every major metropolis from London to Leeds has an underground party scene with events held weekly in squats, fields and forests throughout the country.

The strength of the European Teknival movement is also bypassed, although with the recent attack by the police at the Czektek involving at least one death this is a movement which needs urgent support if it is too survive.

All in all I'm nitpicking though. This book sets out first and foremost to outline the events that surrounded the Battle of the Beanfield and provides an invaluable historical guide to a day that has impacted on the lives of everyone who has attempted to lead an alternative lifestyle ever since.

All who have an interest in the free party/festy scene or in the history of radical politics in the UK should attempt to read this book to gain an insight into how we got here ... and where we're going next.

Worthington proves to be an accomplished writer and editor, and the various others involved, from travellers Sheila Craig and Nick Snakesby, the many who gave and conducted interviews, the aristocrat unafraid to say it as he saw it and the legal mind of Lord Gifford all deserve immense credit for their honesty which is fundamental to this important work.

In short, it's readable, informative, impressively put together and a timely winter solstice gift for the crusty in your life.

Battle of the Beanfield Andy Worthington 2005 Enabler Publications ISBN 0952331667

www.andyworthington.co.uk

review from  http://johnnyvoid.blogspot.com