Stoney Cross

s s o r C y e n Sto June 1986

ALAN LODGE

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Questions to the Home Secretary; Douglas Hurd 3 June 1986 “Hon. Members from the west country will be aware of the immense policing difficulties created by the peace convoy, because, as anyone whose constituency has been visited by the convoy knows, it is anything but peaceful. Indeed, it resembles nothing more than a band of medieval brigands who have no respect for the law or the rights of others”.

Debate on the situation of the Peace Convoy in the New Forest, Hampshire.

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1986/jun/03/hippy-convoy-new-forest

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“We are only too delighted to do anything we can to make life difficult for such things as hippy convoys” Margaret Thatcher 5th June 1986

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T

he ambush at the Battle of the Beanfield had been the year before on the 1st June 1985. In May and June of 1986, the tribes again tried to gather.

Convoys began assembling to celebrate that years Solstice were chased around several counties, all over the south of England, by both huge numbers police and right wing media outrage, before finally finding some temporary recuperative respite on a site at Stoney Cross in the New Forest, Hampshire.

More of the same was in store. Much stress!!

It was the 1st June, when we first arrived at Stoney Cross, . The whole issue was on newspaper front pages for a week!

Politicians again whipped up the moral outrage. On the 3rd June, the Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd described the convoy in a speech to the House of Commons: “Hon. Members from the west country will be aware of the immense policing difficulties created by the peace convoy, it is anything but peaceful. Indeed, it resembles nothing more than a band of medieval brigands who have no respect for the law or the rights of others”.

The National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) observed that this assertion was made without any evidence being presented that the convoy contained a higher proportion of people with criminal records, or, evidence the travellers were committing offences on the road.

Two days later on the 5th, Margaret Thatcher said that her governments is: “Only too delighted to do anything we can to make life difficult for such things as `hippy convoys’”.

On the same day, a cabinet committee was formed to discuss new legislation to deal with Travellers and festivals. Chaired by Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, it comprised of the Secretaries of State for Transport, Environment, Health and Social Security, and Agriculture.

Shortly after the ‘green light’, Hampshire police mounted “Operation Daybreak” on the 9th June. 550 police charged onto the field in support of bailiffs and an eviction order. Many arrests then ensued, the convoy put up no resistance.

Sixty four convoy members were arrested and 129 vehicles impounded after policemen carried a large amount of documentation on people onto the site and also were armed with DoT files on every vehicle.

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The police also came armed with care orders for the Travellers’ children, though a tip off had reached the camp beforehand and the children had been removed.

It was against this background that the now famous ‘anti-hippy’ clauses where put into the Public Order Act, these powers began to operate in 1987. Section 39 of the Public Order Act makes it a new criminal offence for a trespasser on land not to leave it after being ordered to by police.

After the previous years events, this section is seen as yet another example of how the police are being drawn into enforcing the Civil Law and deciding issues which until now, have been the province of the civil courts. The first time for hundreds of years that trespass had become a criminal offence. It was a most controversial measure, it had been inserted into the Act hurriedly.

Under the powers, the most senior police officer present may direct people to leave land if it is reasonably believed that: two or more people are trespassers intending to remain on land for any period of time and have been asked to leave, damage has been caused to the land or threatening behaviour used against the occupier, or 12 or more vehicles have been brought onto the land.

The Home Office had stated: “That the clause was a response to the `problems’ of new age travellers and that the power is not aimed primarily at Gypsy groups”. Yea Right!!

However, according to the National Gypsy Council, by 9.27am on the day the act came into force (1st April 1987), section 39 was being applied against Gypsies by Avon and Somerset police.

The increasingly hostile political climate that followed, had a dramatic affect on the travelling community, frightening away many of the families integral to the community balance of the festival circuit.

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outh llers , BBC S e Trave y Cross e n New Ag to S ays At mo Seven D tu.be/sIlWi05Iu o /y https:/

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Many vehicles impound ed. Not wanting the offers of ‘he lp’ from the authorities, railway wa rrents, kids in care etc .... many left on foot ....

The walk to Glastonbury ..... >

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P

hotographer covering social, political and environmental issues and actions.

Work has been produced for publication, galleries, digital and slide projections at events and presented at large scale in public space. Moving beyond photography, he has experimented with mixed media involving printed text and projected imagery.

A post-graduate of Nottingham Trent University with an MA degree in Photography, Lodge specialised in issues surrounding representation, presenting himself in print and audio-visual format.

A member of the National Union of Journalists, he is a documentary photographer, a photo-journalist and ‘storyteller’ always on the lookout to cover the different strands of related issues.

E: alan@alanlodge.co.uk W: http://alanlodge.co.uk Copyright © Alan Lodge 2021 Nottingham. UK

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