The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on 1 June 1985, when police prevented The Peace Convoy, several hundred, from setting up the 1985 Stonehenge Free Festival. Around 1,300 police officers took part in an operation against approximately 600 travellers.
According to The Observer, pregnant women and those holding babies were clubbed by police with truncheons and the police were hitting “anybody they could reach”. When some of the travellers tried to escape by driving away through the fields, The Observer stated that the police threw truncheons, shields, fire extinguishers and stones at them to try to stop them.
Dozens were injured and 537 travellers were eventually arrested. This represents one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War, possibly one of the biggest in English legal history.
Were the police ever held to account for their aberrant behavior? And what subsequently happened to the members of the convoy?
Comment by tim on 24 October, 2023 at 10:07 amI will never forget the Beanfield Battle (Police attack rather)
and knew a few of the travellers
a few members of the escaping Peace Convoy
fetched up in Stroud on Swifts Hill
this was before I arrived here in 1999 but I’m told
there was considerable local support
and I’d be surprised if some of then
are not still living here
Jeff Cloves
Comment by Jeff Cloves on 29 October, 2023 at 3:51 pm