The police were enforcing a High Court injunction obtained by the authorities prohibiting the 1985 festival from taking place.

[3][4] Conversely, The Observer states the travellers were not armed with petrol bombs and that police intelligence suggesting so "was false".

When some of the travellers tried to escape by driving away through the fields, The Observer stated that the police threw truncheons, shields, fire extinguishers and stones at them to try to stop them.

[1] This represents one of the largest mass arrests of civilians since at least the Second World War,[5] possibly one of the biggest in English legal history.

[6] 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.

[5] The British New Age Travellers movement developed in the 1970s with the intended purpose of attempting to create an alternative way of life.

[7] 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.

[7] 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.

[3] A civil high court injunction was consequently imposed prohibiting the proposed 1985 festival from taking place.

[3] After staying the previous night in Savernake Forest, the Convoy on the morning of 1 June numbered up to 140 vehicles, most of them buses and vans converted into living spaces; it is estimated they contained 600 people.

[1][3] The police had laid down an exclusion zone 4 miles (6.4 km) around the perimeter of Stonehenge, which the convoy hoped to breach.

The Convoy met resistance when the police set up a roadblock near Shipton Bellinger about 7 miles (11 km) from Stonehenge.

[1] When some travellers tried to escape by driving away through the field police allegedly threw truncheons, shields, fire-extinguishers and stones at them to stop them.

[1] One source states that this represented the largest mass arrest of civilians in English legal history,[6] another that it was the biggest figure since the Second World War.

[1] Traveller Alan Lodge, speaking to the BBC, described it as "an ambush that happened on a small, mild mannered bunch of people".

often happened simultaneously, giving travellers no time to react before police used riot sticks to break the vehicles' windscreens.

[1] Cardigan described seeing a very pregnant woman being "repeatedly clubbed on the head" by police, many of whom had their ID numbers covered up.

"[17] ITN Reporter Kim Sabido was at the scene and recorded a piece-to-camera in which he claimed that he had witnessed "some of the most brutal police treatment of people" that he had seen in his entire career as a journalist.

Men, women and children were led away, shivering, swearing, crying, bleeding, leaving their homes in pieces.

"[6] Freelance photographer Ben Gibson, engaged by The Observer that day, was arrested and charged with obstructing a police officer.

[17] Twenty-four of the travellers sued Wiltshire Police for wrongful arrest, assault and criminal damage to themselves and their property.

He was criticised by several national newspapers for acting as a witness against Wiltshire Police; Bill Deedes' editorial in The Daily Telegraph claimed he was a class traitor.

[3] Neo-druid leader Arthur Uther Pendragon was arrested on each and every summer solstice between 1985 and 1999 whilst trying to access Stonehenge.

[21] In the 1985 song "Stonehenge" by Poison Girls, the Battle of the Beanfield is referenced, highlighting the conflict between festival-goers and police forces.