Sid Rawle
Encyclopedia
Sidney William "Sid" Rawle (1 October 1945 – 31 August 2010) was a British
campaigner for peace and land rights
, free festival
organiser, and a former leader of the London squatters
movement. Rawle was known to British tabloid journalists as 'The King of the Hippies', not a title he ever claimed for himself, but one that he did eventually co-opt for his unpublished autobiography.
, known to locals as "Dealer Rawle". His parents separated when he was a child. He was raised by his father and educated at Exton
Village School and Minehead Comprehensive School
. Dyslexia
hampered his education, leading to him dropping out of school. He then lived for a time with his mother in Slough
, where he worked as a park attendant, became active in his trade union
and radical politics, and organised a strike
in a local factory and a love-in
in the municipal gardens.
After spending some time in St Ives
, Cornwall
, in the mid-1960s, he moved to London and became involved in the alternative scene. He was noted in those circles for his refusal to take drugs. Initially involved with a group called Tribe Of The Sun, he formed the Hyde Park Diggers who campaigned on the issues of land use and land ownership, concerns that were central to the rest of his life's actions. He formed the Digger Action Movement with Barry Norcott and John Gillatt, which brought him into contact with John Lennon
. In 1970, Lennon invited Rawle to establish a commune on Dorinish
, a small island in Clew Bay
, Ireland
, which Lennon had owned since 1967. After surviving Atlantic storms, the commune eventually disbanded in 1972 after a fire destroyed their main stores tent. Lennon did contribute money towards Rawle's communes and other projects, and was reputed to have financed the film Winstanley
, about Gerrard Winstanley
, a charismatic leader of the Diggers movement, and in which Rawle had a role as a Ranter
, which suited him admirably.
During the early 1970s, Rawle became increasingly involved in the London squatting
scene (living for a period in a recently vacated vicarage in Gospel Oak) and the free festival
movement. He was involved in organising the Windsor Free Festival
s and the 1974 Stonehenge Festival. After re-printing, as publisher of International Times
, an article similar to the leaflet which had led to the imprisonment of Windsor Free Festival organiser Bill 'Ubi' Dwyer
, Rawle was himself jailed for three months in 1975 to prevent him publicising that year's festival.
In 1976, he became one of the original residents of Tipi Valley, a tent commune near Llandeilo
in Wales
. During this period he joined the Ecology (later Green
) Party, and used his festival experience to help set up the first Green Gathering
at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury. The years of travelling to festivals and events had turned an ad hoc collection of people and vehicles into what became known as the Peace Convoy, with Rawle as the leader. He stayed at Tipi Valley until 1982 when he began to live permanently on the road and at convoy-associated communities. In 1983 he set up the Rainbow Village at a disused US air base at Molesworth
, Cambridgeshire
, a proposed cruise missile
site, which was broken up by police in February 1985. The key event during all these years was the Stonehenge Free Festival. In 1985, the Peace Convoy was routed by police action at the Battle of the Beanfield
, during which Sid remained at the previous night's camp at Savernake Forest
.
He wrote The Vision of Albion, an unpublished but widely publicised manifesto, in which he stated:
He eventually settled with his family at Hillersland near Berry Hill
in the Forest of Dean
, where he remained till his death at the age of 64. After his involvement with Oak Dragon and Rainbow Circle camps, small festivals with a more participatory and spiritual inclination, he set up his own organisation, Rainbow 2000, which held a number of camps each summer, first at a site near Elton, and in recent years on top of a hill overlooking the River Severn
near Rodley. He was sitting in a chair by the outside fire, while the last Rainbow 2000 Camp of the season (the SuperSpirit Camp) was being packed down by the crew, when he collapsed and died at 5.15 p.m. on 31 August 2010, according to eyewitness accounts. He had at least seven children, by different mothers.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
campaigner for peace and land rights
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...
, free festival
Free festival
Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities for which, often, no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised control. The Free festival movement being the...
organiser, and a former leader of the London squatters
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
movement. Rawle was known to British tabloid journalists as 'The King of the Hippies', not a title he ever claimed for himself, but one that he did eventually co-opt for his unpublished autobiography.
Life
He was born at Bridgwater, Somerset, and was the son of a horse-dealer on ExmoorExmoor
Exmoor is an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England, named after the main river that flows out of the district, the River Exe. The moor has given its name to a National Park, which includes the Brendon Hills, the East Lyn Valley, the Vale of Porlock and ...
, known to locals as "Dealer Rawle". His parents separated when he was a child. He was raised by his father and educated at Exton
Exton, Somerset
Exton is a village and civil parish north-east of Dulverton and south-west of Dunster in Somerset, England. It lies on the River Exe on Exmoor...
Village School and Minehead Comprehensive School
West Somerset Community College
The West Somerset Community College is a fairly large comprehensive school in Minehead, Somerset, England. It provides education for students aged 13–16 in the main school and 16-18 in the sixth form...
. Dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
hampered his education, leading to him dropping out of school. He then lived for a time with his mother in Slough
Slough
Slough is a borough and unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Royal Berkshire, England. The town straddles the A4 Bath Road and the Great Western Main Line, west of central London...
, where he worked as a park attendant, became active in his trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and radical politics, and organised a strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
in a local factory and a love-in
Love-in
A love-in is a peaceful public gathering focused on meditation, love, music, and/or use of psychedelic drugs. The term was coined by Los Angeles radio comedian Peter Bergman, who also hosted the first one in March or April 1967 in Elysian Park.It has been interpreted in different ways by...
in the municipal gardens.
After spending some time in St Ives
St Ives, Cornwall
St Ives is a seaside town, civil parish and port in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town lies north of Penzance and west of Camborne on the coast of the Celtic Sea. In former times it was commercially dependent on fishing. The decline in fishing, however, caused a shift in commercial...
, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, in the mid-1960s, he moved to London and became involved in the alternative scene. He was noted in those circles for his refusal to take drugs. Initially involved with a group called Tribe Of The Sun, he formed the Hyde Park Diggers who campaigned on the issues of land use and land ownership, concerns that were central to the rest of his life's actions. He formed the Digger Action Movement with Barry Norcott and John Gillatt, which brought him into contact with John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
. In 1970, Lennon invited Rawle to establish a commune on Dorinish
Dorinish
Dorinish is an uninhabited island in Clew Bay in County Mayo, Ireland. It has colloquially been known as "Beatle Island" after Beatle John Lennon purchased the island in 1967 for £1,700. Previously used by sailing ships for its stones, the island became a place of peace for Lennon and his family...
, a small island in Clew Bay
Clew Bay
Clew Bay is a natural ocean bay in County Mayo, Ireland. It contains Ireland's best example of sunken drumlins. According to tradition, there is an island in the bay for every day of the year. The bay is overlooked by Croagh Patrick, Ireland's holy mountain, and the mountains of North Mayo. Clare...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, which Lennon had owned since 1967. After surviving Atlantic storms, the commune eventually disbanded in 1972 after a fire destroyed their main stores tent. Lennon did contribute money towards Rawle's communes and other projects, and was reputed to have financed the film Winstanley
Winstanley (film)
Winstanley is the title of a film made in 1975 in the UK by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo, based on the 1961 David Caute novel Comrade Jacob....
, about Gerrard Winstanley
Gerrard Winstanley
Gerrard Winstanley was an English Protestant religious reformer and political activist during the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell...
, a charismatic leader of the Diggers movement, and in which Rawle had a role as a Ranter
Ranter
The Ranters were an alleged sect in the time of the English Commonwealth who were regarded as heretical by the established Church of that period...
, which suited him admirably.
During the early 1970s, Rawle became increasingly involved in the London squatting
Squatting
Squatting consists of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use....
scene (living for a period in a recently vacated vicarage in Gospel Oak) and the free festival
Free festival
Free festivals are a combination of music, arts and cultural activities for which, often, no admission is charged, but involvement is preferred. They are identifiable by being multi-day events connected by a camping community without centralised control. The Free festival movement being the...
movement. He was involved in organising the Windsor Free Festival
Windsor Free Festival
The Windsor Free Festival was a British Free Festival held in Windsor Great Park from 1972 to 1974. Organised by some London commune dwellers, notably Ubi Dwyer and Sid Rawle, it was in many ways the forerunner of the Stonehenge Free Festival, particularly in the brutality of its final suppression...
s and the 1974 Stonehenge Festival. After re-printing, as publisher of International Times
International Times
International Times was an underground newspaper founded in London in 1966. Editors included Hoppy, David Mairowitz, Pete Stansill, Barry Miles, Jim Haynes and playwright Tom McGrath...
, an article similar to the leaflet which had led to the imprisonment of Windsor Free Festival organiser Bill 'Ubi' Dwyer
Ubi Dwyer
Bill 'Ubi' Dwyer or William Ubique Dwyer was an anarchist activist in New Zealand, Australia, England and his native Ireland best known as the originator and principal organiser of the Windsor Free Festival....
, Rawle was himself jailed for three months in 1975 to prevent him publicising that year's festival.
In 1976, he became one of the original residents of Tipi Valley, a tent commune near Llandeilo
Llandeilo
Llandeilo is a town in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated at the crossing of the River Towy by the A483 on a 19th century stone bridge. Its population is 1,731.The town is served by Llandeilo railway station on the Heart of Wales Line.- Early history :...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. During this period he joined the Ecology (later Green
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
) Party, and used his festival experience to help set up the first Green Gathering
Big Green Gathering
The Big Green Gathering was a festival with an environmental focus which happened during most summers between 1994 and 2007. It was held at various locations in Somerset and Wiltshire in England...
at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury. The years of travelling to festivals and events had turned an ad hoc collection of people and vehicles into what became known as the Peace Convoy, with Rawle as the leader. He stayed at Tipi Valley until 1982 when he began to live permanently on the road and at convoy-associated communities. In 1983 he set up the Rainbow Village at a disused US air base at Molesworth
RAF Molesworth
RAF Molesworth is a Royal Air Force station located near Molesworth, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom with a history dating back to 1917.Its runway and flight line facilities were closed in 1973 and demolished to support ground-launched cruise missile operations in the early 1980s...
, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, a proposed cruise missile
Cruise missile
A cruise missile is a guided missile that carries an explosive payload and is propelled, usually by a jet engine, towards a land-based or sea-based target. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warhead over long distances with high accuracy...
site, which was broken up by police in February 1985. The key event during all these years was the Stonehenge Free Festival. In 1985, the Peace Convoy was routed by police action at the Battle of the Beanfield
Battle of the Beanfield
The Battle of the Beanfield took place over several hours on the afternoon of Saturday 1 June 1985 when Wiltshire Police prevented a vehicle convoy of several hundred new age travellers, known as "The Convoy" and referred to in the media as the "Peace Convoy" from setting up at the 11th Stonehenge...
, during which Sid remained at the previous night's camp at Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest
Savernake Forest is on a Cretaceous chalk plateau between Marlborough and Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire, England. Its area is approximately .It is privately owned by the Trustees of Savernake Estate, the Earl of Cardigan, and his family solicitor. Since 1939 the running of the forest has been...
.
He wrote The Vision of Albion, an unpublished but widely publicised manifesto, in which he stated:
"In the end it all gets back to land. Looking back, I see that a link that runs through my life concerns the right to land and property on it. Shared out equally, there would be a couple of acres for every adult living in Britain. That would mean each family or group could have a reasonably sized small holding of ten or twenty acres and learn once again to become self sufficient. The present day reality is the reverse, with some folk owning hundreds of thousands of acres and others owning none. There’s talk of community in war time. We can be ordered to go and fight and die for Queen and country. In peace time is it too much to ask for just a few square yards of our green and pleasant land to rear our children on? That’s all we want, myself and the squatters and travellers and other people in the many projects I’ve been involved with. Just a few square yards of this land that we can in wartime be asked to go out and die for. And if we ever achieve that, what else? What else is what I call the Vision of Albion."
He eventually settled with his family at Hillersland near Berry Hill
Berry Hill, Gloucestershire
Berry Hill is a small village in Gloucestershire, England not far from the town of Coleford.It is notable for being the birthplace of the writer,journalist and TV playwright Dennis Potter.- External links :* * * *...
in the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
, where he remained till his death at the age of 64. After his involvement with Oak Dragon and Rainbow Circle camps, small festivals with a more participatory and spiritual inclination, he set up his own organisation, Rainbow 2000, which held a number of camps each summer, first at a site near Elton, and in recent years on top of a hill overlooking the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
near Rodley. He was sitting in a chair by the outside fire, while the last Rainbow 2000 Camp of the season (the SuperSpirit Camp) was being packed down by the crew, when he collapsed and died at 5.15 p.m. on 31 August 2010, according to eyewitness accounts. He had at least seven children, by different mothers.