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The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on 1 June 1985, when Wiltshire Police prevented The Peace Convoy, a convoy of several hundred New Age travellers, from setting up the 1985 Stonehenge Free Festival in Wiltshire, England. The police were enforcing a High Court injunction obtained by the authorities prohibiting the 1985 festival from taking place.〔 Around 1300 police officers took part in the operation against approximately 600 travellers.〔 The convoy of travellers that were heading for Stonehenge encountered resistance at a police road block seven miles from the landmark. Police claim that some traveller vehicles then rammed police vehicles in an attempt to push through the roadblock.〔 Around the same time police smashed the windows of the convoy's vehicles and some travellers were arrested. The rest broke into an adjacent field and a stand-off consequently developed that persisted for several hours.〔 According to the BBC "Police said they came under attack, being pelted with lumps of wood, stones and even petrol bombs".〔〔 Conversely, ''The Guardian'' states the travellers were not armed with petrol bombs and that police intelligence suggesting so "was false".〔 Eventually the police launched another attack during which the worst of the violence is purported to have taken place. According to ''The Observer'', during this period 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'' states that the police threw truncheons, shields, fire-extinguishers and stones at them in an attempt to stop them.〔 Dozens of travellers were injured,〔 8 police officers and 16 travellers were hospitalised.〔 537 travellers were eventually arrested.〔 This represents one of the largest mass arrest of civilians since at least the Second World War,〔 possibly one of the biggest in English legal history.〔 Two years after the event, a Wiltshire police sergeant was found guilty of Actual Bodily Harm as a consequence of injuries incurred by a member of the convoy during the Battle of the Beanfield.〔(Hippies clash with police at Stonehenge ) (1985), ''BBC News archive'' Accessed 22 January 2008.〕 In February 1991 a civil court judgement awarded 21 of the travellers £24,000 in damages for false imprisonment, damage to property and wrongful arrest.〔 The award was swallowed by their legal bill as the judge did not award them legal costs.〔 ==Background== The British New Age Travellers movement developed in the 1970s with the intended purpose of attempting to create an alternative way of life. Travellers maintained themselves partly by travelling between, organising and trading at free festivals.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 url=http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/research_docs/Heritage%20pack_v5.pdf )〕 After a stay with CND demonstrators, one group of travellers came to be known as ''The Peace Convoy''.〔 The free festival scene thus also emerged in the 1970s. The People's Free Festival at Windsor ran from 1972 until 1974 when it was violently aborted by the authorities.〔 Stonehenge Free Festival began in 1974. In 1975 the Windsor festival switched to Watchfield but did not prove successful at the abandoned military site. Consequently The People's Free Festival at Stonehenge, became the focal point of the movement. However in 1980, the Festival had been marred by significant violence, largely by biker groups.〔http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/henge-history-80.html retrieved 20/6/15〕 A lesser undercurrent of unrest pervaded later festivals. In 1984 the Department of the Environment passed management of Stonehenge and the surrounding land to English Heritage. By that time the festival had grown in size, the attendance figure for the 1984 festival was estimated at 100,000.〔 Due to the high attendance figures there was little authority present at Stonehenge festivals and the police were unable to shut them down or implement the law. Consequently most illegal drugs were unrestrictedly available and advertised for purchase. Traders at the festival were neglecting to obtain licences or pay taxes.〔 Critics claimed that the 1984 festival had resulted in the destruction of archaeological information and on the site itself, "holes had been dug in Bronze Age barrows for latrines and as bread ovens, motorcycles had been ridden over them, churning the surface. Fences had been torn down, and a thousand young trees cut down for firewood".〔 The clean-up cost upwards of £20,000, besides the archaeological information that was lost.〔 Landowners also claimed that damage to Stonehenge, other property damage, trespassing, recreational drug use and bathing naked in rivers had occurred during the festival.〔 A civil high court injunction was consequently imposed prohibiting the proposed 1985 festival from taking place.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of the Beanfield」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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