Battle of The Beanfield

The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on the afternoon of Saturday 1 June 1985 when Wiltshire Police prevented a vehicle convoy of several hundred new age travellers, known as "The Convoy" and referred to in the media as the "Peace Convoy" from setting up at the 11th Stonehenge Free Festival at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England after English Heritage who were the custodians of the site persuaded a High Court Judge to grant an exclusion zone of some four miles around the Stones. The incident became notorious for being a notable example of a police riot.

Convoy members reported that after a stand-off of several hours police attacked their procession of vehicles by entering the field where they were being contained, methodically smashing windows, beating people on the head with truncheons and using sledgehammers to damage the interiors of their coaches. The account was supported by all the independent witnesses and upheld by the subsequent court verdicts. The Beanfield was the field neighbouring the vehicles' location; when a large number of police entered the first field, many of the Convoy vehicles tried to escape by going through the Beanfield, where they were pursued and arrested by police.

At the time, the police alleged that they responded after they had come under attack, being pelted with lumps of wood, stones and even petrol bombs. They did not repeat these allegations in any of the subsequent court cases; no proof for any of them has ever come to light. Whilst the full account of events remains in dispute, a court judgement six years later found the police guilty of wrongful arrest, assault and criminal damage.

Stonehenge is important for many people for many very different reasons. Historical and archaeological communities have wanted Stonehenge to be preserved and untouched by humans except for study. Other groups, such as neo-druids and new age religions see Stonehenge as equally important, but for its spiritual and ritualistic significance, rather than for its archaeological and historic significance. Archaeologists see Stonehenge in the context of a larger archaeological landscape that stretches over the geography the Stonehenge and other significant sites, though less noticeable, all of which are important to understanding the life and times of the people that originally shaped them. New age groups that are interested in Stonehenge tend to view it as a singular curiosity, ignoring the important archaeological context that it resides in. From its earliest to most modern excavations, there has been heated debate over what Stonehenge was originally constructed and used for. It is this debate that brought about tensions between interested parties that escalated in the “Battle of the Beanfield.”