Thursday, June 09, 2005

Stonehenge: Celebration and Subversion (review)

Andy Worthington, Alternative Albion 2004 Isbn 1872883761, 14.95pounds
(the book is available from mandrake, plus a few independentbookshops as well as AMAZON. But as is often the case you probably won't find it in one of the corporate bookstores)

'This innovative social history looks in detail at how the summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge have brought together different aspects of British counter-culture to make the monument a 'living temple' and an icon of alternative Britain'

And indeed everything you could want to know about the stones from the Druid revival in the 18th century, Gerard Gardner's celebration of the 1951 repeal of the Witchcraft Act (complete with bagpipes), to the events of the Beanfield in 1985 (that's twenty years ago this year folks). The counter culture didn't end that day but rather it mutated into the Rave Party scene, the Road's protest and Neo-paganism. It's poised and ready under the banner of the Save Stonehenge Campaign to respond to government's latest scheme to run a dual carriageway just west of the circle.

They say history is written by the winners, and in this instance there are many who wish to claim the victory. As a pagan I was surprised to sense the animus among anarchists et al, against what they call ' uniformed druid hierarchy' (see Frazer Clark's Parallel Youniversity UP!223). How could it be that the druids are seen by many as the enemy of the counter culture? Surely it was not always so? Well read this book and you learn a little how a 'small section of the druids' (and indeed the pagan) movement appeared at times to support the establishment's attempts to ban free festivals and make access to sacred sites for a small self promoting elite only. But this isn't the whole story - these people are expert self publicists and in the absence of accurate information they managed for a time to monopolise the truth about places like Stonehenge. As Andy says:

Not all Druids are 'a bunch of middle class accountants and dentists'. The Druids at Stonehenge come in many forms. These include:

- The Ancient Druid Order, who may well fit your bill these days, but
who were the original agitators for solstice access after the first fence was
raised around Stonehenge in 1901.

- The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, founded in 1964 after a schism
in the Ancient Druid Order, who abandoned Stonehenge on a point of principle
after members of the public were prevented by the authorities from attending the
solstice in the early 1960s. the original donor having stipulated full public
access.

- A number of newer Orders, whose founders were part of the Stonehenge
Free Festivals' vast congregation, and who campaigned for open access to
Stonehenge after the festival was brutally suppressed at the Battle of the
Beanfield in 1985, >> which i always refer to as the Beanfield Massacre a
more accurate description, despite how half a dozen hardened mushy & special
brew nuts might have told it in the pub that night :)

- Arthur Pendragon's Loyal Arthurian Warband, the Secular Order and the
Glastonbury Order.


That's why Andy's book is so important - it sets the record straight and arms the reader with all that facts they need to counteract lies and prepare for what is to come. The truth is that the pagan / new age movement and the free festival scene are intimated connected, always were and will be again. The editors of the recent Channel Four 'Banned in the UK' would have done better had they read Andy's book. How else could they have failed to recognise the connection between the UK government's ban on Acid house and 'repetitive beats' with the earlier assault on the Free Festival scene including that at Stonehenge. Perhaps it needs someone like Andy to document all this and as Professor Hutton points out, he does such a thorough job it's likely to remain the standard history for a very long time to come. See you at Stonehenge.

Mogg
PS: to see my pictures from the 1999 'Return to the Stones' go to: http://homepages.tesco.net/~mogg.morgan/solstice.htm

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