At a meeting of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), in early 1985,  it was resolved to obtain a High Court Injunction preventing the annual gathering at Stonehenge. This was the device to be used to justify the attack at the “Battle of the Beanfield” on the 1st June in Hampshire.   Well it wasn’t a battle really. It was an ambush.

“A police helicopter watched overhead but there was little other sign of trouble until… Seven miles from Stonehenge just short of the A303 and the Hampshire / Wiltshire border,  two lorry loads of gravel were tipped across the road.  Up to this point, no laws had been broken.  I got out of my truck to take photographs when I first saw some twenty policemen running down the convoy ahead of me smashing windscreens without warning and ‘arresting’ / assaulting the occupants, dragging them out through the windscreens broken glass.

“The scale of the police operation was becoming obvious.  The same level of violence had been applied to the rear of the convoy.  Large numbers of police in many lines deep could be seen on the road forming up. Police in full kit were now massed in large numbers and obviously getting ready to charge.  It turns out that police had been arresting a lot of people around Stonehenge earlier in the afternoon.  At 7.00pm, ACC Grundy had sixteen hundred policemen from six counties, Ministry of Defence police and some believe,  army officers in police uniforms!!!

“They had been briefed that we were all violent anarchists, rather than a bunch of young people and families with children.  They charged. The scenes that followed were recorded by media that had evaded the police blockade.  The story was international news.  ‘Dixon of Dock Green’ type policing was dead.  That which Britain was noted for had now changed to para-military operations against minority groups.”

530 were arrested that day (both at the Beanfield and at Stonehenge), the most in any operation since the Second World War.

Alan Lodge ‘Tash’ comes from a free festival and traveller background. Living in old busses, trucks and caravans, he drove around the country on ‘the circuit’ with his family and friends. Since the late 1970’s he has been photographing events and the people around him.

Dealing with aspects of ‘alternative’ lifestyles and sub-cultures. Photographing many free and commercial events, ‘free party’ events (‘rave culture’), environment protest, land rights with surrounding social concerns. He aims to present a more positive view of people and communities that are frequently misrepresented. A post-graduate of Nottingham Trent University, MA degree in Photography. Member of the National Union of Journalists, a documentary photographer and photo-journalist.

https://alanlodge.co.uk

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Free to anyone who was there…

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