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| Stone Formation Archive 1992 |
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 Stone Formations news, views, gallery and archive brought to you by Weird Wiltshire Introduction Latest News News Archive Stonehenge Stonehenge Project Stonehenge 360 Avebury Saviours Stones Village Solstice Wayland Smithy Long Barrow Woodhenge Gallery Summer Solstice Gallery 2002 Summer Solstice Gallery 2004 Postcards Wallpaper Links  |
First Published May 28 1992 URGENT advice has gone out to landowners and farmers amid fears that up to 20,000 hippies could descend on Wiltshire for the summer solstice.. They are told to be ready to use any means available to block access to their land - and any sightings of hippie convoys should be reported to Farm Watch co-ordinators and police. A solstice intelligence office has already been set up at police headquarters in Devizes to monitor the thousands of hippies. Last weekend 20,000 travellers formed a mass encampment in the Malvern Hills, Hereford and Worcester - 1,000 of them having previously descended on the town of Lechlade, near Swindon. In one incident, five flares were fired at a helicopter of West Mercia police, who have maintained a softly-softly approach. In Wiltshire the county council has authorised the police to take all reasonable measures to ensure that Stonehenge is not invaded. The police have drawn up contingency plans to deal with a possible invasion. All rest days have been cancelled for the period from June 17 to 21. Gerald Osborne, chairman of the National Farmers Union in Wiltshire, said farmers and landowners would be blocking lanes and entrances to keep out vehicles. 'There is such a mess left in their wake - it affects crops and grass and causes a potential loss whenever they camp illegally,' he said. Marion Shelley from English Heritage which owns the monument, said: 'We have heard that some of these people intend to come to Stonehenge. Our concern is to protect the monument.' In a bid to keep the travellers away from Stonehenge during the solstice, a four-mile exclusion zone will be in force from 11.59pm on June 17 until 11.59pm on June 21. The local authority order was approved by Salisbury Council following a request by Wiltshire chief constable Walter Girven. Wiltshire police spokesman Peter Sandall said: 'We are in close touch with West Mercia and we will be made aware if they start moving in our direction.' Back to 1992 index |
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