Operation Solstice

420 people were arrested on 1 June 1985 on their way to Stonehenge to hold the 11th People's Free Festival. Using video footage, the police radio log, photographs and personal testimony to recreate what became known as the BATTLE OF THE BEANFIELD

'This portrait provides a good background to what was, at the time, the longest running civil case in British legal history when 24 people sued the police for damages.'
OBSERVER 3 November 1991

THE HOME FRONT
"Coaches 7 through to 15 appear to be the personnel carriers and the ones to concentrate on."
Extract: POLICE RADIO LOG (1/6/85 @ 13:30)

Using over 1000 officers from five constabularies, travellers and festival-goers were contained in a field on the Hampshire/Wiltshire border for several hours. At 7pm, having refused to negotiate an alternative festival site, the Operational Commander, Wiltshire's Assistant Cheif Constable Lionel Grundy, ordered his men to attack.

Some of the travellers fled into an adjacent field where they were hunted down like animals. The ensuingviolence was recorded by an ITN camera crew, headed by Kim Sabido. In an emotional piece-to-camera he described it as the worst police violence he had ever seen, and stressed: "The number of people who have been hit by policemen, who have been clubbed whilst holding babies in their arms in coaches around this field, is yet to be counted... There must surely be an enquiry after what has happened here today."

420 people were arrested and taken to holding cells throughout the south of England. Back at the Beanfield homes were systematically looted and smashed. Some were burnt-out. Seven dogs were destroyed by the RSPCA.

Many people believe that the Stonehenge festival was used as an excuse for "trashing" a thriving lifestyle. For thousands of young people a bedsit on wheels was seen as a viable alternative to scratching a living in a decayed inner-city. According to Maureen Lodge, who had taken to the road during the recession of the late 1970's, and who, like scores of other women, was stripped-searched in a police garage after the Beanfield:
"The real reason was the threat to the State. The number of people who were living on buses had been doubling every year for 4 years. It was anarchy in action, and it was seen to be working by so many people that they wanted to be a part of it too".