E&G revisits a literally landmark civil battle
On June 1 1985,
Stonehenge was humming with hippies. The ‘Peace Convoy’, comprising 600 tie-dyed
travellers, converged on the Wiltshire site for the Stonehenge Free Festival.
The festival had been forbidden by the Wiltshire constabulary, using a government-backed
High Court injunction, from going ahead; but in a fit of hippie recalcitrance
the phalanx of frosted peace-lovers rumbled into town anyway.
Potholes on the Road
Channeling the
spirit of Kris Kristofferson’s protagonist in Convoy, the caravan set its bearings for Wiltshire in full
knowledge of the police presence it would encounter. It was about seven miles
from Stonehenge that the incense of nonconformism was first wafted towards police, who had formed a barricade of 1300 personnel to the South of the site.
After trying to
endear officers with a misty rendition of John Lennon’s Imagine, the convoy became restless during Hesitation Blues and ended defiantly with Piggies. It became clear that conflict was inevitable.
To acoustic
strums of antipathy, the convoy made for the barricade and attempted to breach
it. But police were ready. With truncheons, they smashed the windows
of convoy vehicles, arresting members of the vanguard, and pursued an offshoot
of the convoy to a nearby field where another stand-off ensued.
Joint Blame
To this day
debate rages as to what exactly happened, why and whose fault it was.
Disputation surrounds
whether members of the convoy used improvised weapons - even petrol bombs - as
part of a premeditated and sustained attack on police. Although the use of
petrol bombs, if true, does hint at this, The
Observer reported that police may have preemptively thrown shields and
stones at the convoy to get it to stop.
Although such
measures may have been born of desperation or fear, one wonders whether bombarding
moving vehicles with objects could realistically have provided any logistical
benefit; a fortiori one questions the
wisdom of throwing stones at people who were already stoned.
Although
publications such as the Guardian maintain that police measures were sanctioned against the travellers without
justification, the general conception that both parties were at fault for
escalating the conflict - which led to 24 injuries in total, as well as 537
arrests - prevails.
Half-baked Excuses
Perhaps
understandably, Wiltshire police have made no official apology. At the time,
they stood by their actions as the justifiable result of the court-ordered
injunction which forbade the festival from taking place at the hallowed site. However,
in 1991 a court ruling determined that £24,000 be paid to 21 travellers in
damages – encompassing wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and damage to
possessions.
This most
historic of British civil battles, which briefly and unbecomingly threw Stonehenge
into a new light, typifies the risk of overlap between politics and
archaeology. It gave rise to questions of the extent to which the state has
authority over our national heritage. Ultimately, the fact that the events of the battle are related today highlights what an important role our national monuments
still play in modern life.
