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Updated July 2021

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This site is dedicated in the memory of

Roger Hutchinson,

who inspired me to delve deep into the magic of the free festival and who passed away Sept 3rd 2010.

R.I.P. Roger .....


Pickup Bank Free Festival

( aka Deeply Vale )

25th -27th July 1980.

10-17th August l981.


  

The stage at Pickup Bank 1980 © D Evans

 

Pickup Bank 1980.

    This was the successor to the Deeply Vale festival , but it never took off as well as the shows in the Vale, due to the location ( nowhere near as sheltered as Deeply Vale ) police harrassment , hostile local authorities and the lousy weather .

Release Report
The Festival was due to start on Friday 25th of July. Release sent a representive early as we had heard there were some problems. On Tuesday the 22nd the entrance to Deeply Vale was blocked by the police. The organisers had also arranged a second site at Edenfield but this was also cordoned off by the police on anticipation of an injunction which they hoped would prevent the site being used. The Edenfield site was in fact totally unsuitable for a festival, being small and inaccessible. The early arrivers, including the convoy had been sent by the police to Shawforth tip - some common land in Whitworth. However when the injunction was granted banning festivals in the Rossendale Council area the council decided to evict the people at Whitworth.The police blocked entrance to the site and wouldn't allow vehicular access even to farmers who lived there.
By 4;pm on the 23rd the convoy was ready to leave. however the police had the entrance blocked and they couldn't get out. The council then moved in a breakdown vehicle and started to hook up to the front truck. People got in the way and soon a fight broke out between the convoy people and the 100 or so police officers present. Eventually, after 7 people had been arrested and 2 police officers hospitalised, the convoy was allowed to move off and eventually ended up on a piece of common land between Haslingden and Darwen in the Borough of Blackburn. The police at first tried to stop entry to this site but gave up their orders were disregarded. This site was where the festival took place though Blackburn council got an injunction banning organisation of a festival. There were eventually 2 - 3000 campers on site and many more visitors. The toilets were, not surprisingly, inadequate as they'd been arranged at the very last miinute. The only water on site was brought in containers by a lorry and just about adequate.There was very little wood.
The problems cannot be blamed on the organisers who did their best to sort things out under immense pressure and in a very short time. Yet again this is an example of politicians and police using confrontation tactics to prevent a festival taking place. As usual, the festival went ahead anyway but with far worse facilities than would have otherwise been provided.


Bob Nightingale
Release.

 

Teepees at the 1980 festival: Photo © Gary Heaton

 


Festival Welfare Service report .

 


I arrived at Gray Mare Inn on the road from Haslingden to Darwen on the evening of Friday 25th July , to join a meeting with representatives of Blackburn Borough Council , the solicitors for the Deeply Vale Festival organisers and Walter Lloyd from FWS.

The free festival, originally planned to take place in Deeply Vale had been moved from there to an alternative site near Edenfield, which became unusable as it was covered by a court injunction preventing a free festival being held anywhere within the District of Rossendale in Lancashire. Finally a site was found in the Borough of Blackburn at Pickup Bank, although Blackburn Borough Council subsequently also took out an injunction to prevent a festival from being orginised on this site.It was evident that festival goers who had already arrived in the area needed a site and that more people would be arriving who had not been informed of the problems over the festival.

The meeting I attended was to discuss how emergency provisions could be made to accommodate the festival on the site at Pickup Bank, as there were already about 500 people gathered there and more were arriving all the time.The local Authorities discussed emergency arrangements for sanitation,water supply and rubbish disposal and the original organisers undertook to carry out these arrangements. Problems were foreseen with parking on the road |verges and there was some concern that the narrow road might be blocked .It was hoped that the road could be kept clear for the emergency services which would be providing a basic cover on site. The police had set up posts on the approach roads to the new site and were advising festival goers of the injunction covering the festival.

By late on Friday evening about 800 people were camping on the site. Water drums had been organised to bring water onto site and some latrine trenches were dug . They had to be lined with polythene to prevent pollution to nearby and were subsequently screened to offer some privacy. There was a wide variety of food and drink stands on site, all selling at reasonable prices. Release were on site providing a 24 hour first aid and councelling service from Friday to Wednesday ,with a doctor on site for part of the time . Rochdale Civil Aid provided an ambulance and first aid team during the afternoon and evening over the weekend and the Salvation Army were on site during day and evening providing free drinks and rolls and helping with the water runs. The Samaritans provided a counselling service during the weekend. The first aid teams were kept fairly busy dealing with a range of medical problems, and some casualties had to be taken into Blackburn Infirmary, who were very good in dealing with festival patients. One major social problem occurred at the festival. The local emergency social workers had to be called onto the site when a mother of two young children was causing them distress. As there was no one else on site who could take care of the children when the festival ended they were taken into care under a Place of Safety Order.

© D Evans

© D Evans

A stage was constructed on Saturday and about 4000 people were on site for the music on Saturday and Sunday evenings, with approximately 1500 people camping over the week-end. Music continued on Monday and Tuesday evenings, but by Wednesday morning many people had left the site ,encouraged by the torrential rain.

Despite the lack of time to make any site preparations, the original festival organisers worked hard to arrange basic facilities at the festival, and there few serious problems. If the site is to be used again in the future, would recommend that:


i) Better arrangements be made for vehicles to be parked off the road.
ii) The latrine trenches be screened more effectively to encourage their use.
iii) A water bowser to be brought onto site.
iv) Firewood to be made more easily available.

There was a steep quarry hole in the middle of the festival site which could have been very dangerous if anyone had fallen into it. Fortunately the full moon period meant that it was quite light at night, so people could see the steep drop. It would have been less hazardous if the quarry
could have been fenced off, or if it could have been illuminated at night.

Apparently the site was left very clean at the end of the festival. Throughout the festival black plastic rubbish sacks had been distributed around the site and each day teams of people went round clearing up the litter .This system worked very well, as people camping were encouraged to keep their own areas clean, and the main polluted zone in front of the stage was cleaned each afternoon. Most of the litter here was caused by people visiting the festival for the evening to hear the music. There were many food and drink stalls around the stage and it would have been better they had had more obvious rubbish receptacles next to them for people put their food and drink containers in.

Despite the confusion beforehand and the bad weather, the atmosphere the festival was very enjoyable.


Penny Mellor
Field Worker

 

......as did this little tacker in the bag. © D Evans

 

 

 

 

 

 

images above section © D Evans

 

images this section © Ranna Brennan


Pickup Bank 1981.

Pickup bank (81) was a nightmare, its high up in the misty northern hills overlooking Blackburn and we sat up there for two weeks in squelchy mud and soggy low cloud. A bit grim to say the least - lots of the convoy travellers were coming down with Hepatitis (infectious not intravenous) and many of the dogs were dying from Parvo which is a dreaded doggy aids type thing - uuugh !!.Its one festy that I have no wish to return to should I win the lottery and buy a time machine from woolworths.

Andy Hope

Rog Lewis had these recollections

I was 16 or 17 at the time and came up from Bolton on the back of a mate’s motorbike. I recall drugs were openly advertised on boards outside various vehicles and that when the police came on-site (to investigate a claim that dogs had been poisoned with Strychnine?) they didn’t seem too bothered. I also remember one bus that seemed to be solely for the use of dogs! We bought “white lightening” for two quid each and after a while when nothing seemed to happen got some green microdots thinking we had been ripped.  Almost immediately after necking the dot the White Lightening kicked in and I had one helluva night.

At one point I was holding onto the guy-lines of the marquee thinking it was a flying saucer about to take off and leave us behind.  Inside the marquee I became fascinated with the lights on the sound equipment and must have been playing with the buttons.  Next thing I remember I was laying on the ground and someone being told “Don’t hit him, can you not see he is just tripping”.  I was taken onto someone’s bus and they looked after me for a while. Next morning I was sporting a shiner and had to walk to Edgeworth to catch a bus home as my mate’s motorbike had been stolen. As I waited at the bus-stop one of my colleagues from work who lived in the village walked past and she didn’t even recognize me. I thought I must have looked in a right state!

One other memory is seeing the people who looked like Easter Island statues gazing out in contemplation over the valley. It struck me much later that they must have actually been sitting on the latrines. 

22 years later I returned to Edgeworth for the wedding of an old school friend.  I went to the site of the festie and got chatting with an old man who lives on the farm nearby (although I don’t remember there being any buildings so close).  I was all nostalgic but he remembered it differently and told me of someone he saw covered in blood washing himself in the stream. He was under the impression that the man had been attacked with a shotgun. He told me he had felt unable to leave his home for the duration of the fest while I told him that for me the Festie was a landmark event in my life.
 
Love n Peace,

 
Rog

Photo right taken from the 1981 festival . courtesy Mr T Tortoise- who remembers the festival thus .........


Flyer courtesy Anthony Hewitt ,

ponced up in Photoshoppe by the Very Reverend Shark-Barker

Although this was the second year the festival was held at this site it was still being referred to as Deeply Vale in some quarters. This festival Aid report from 1981 gives a fair picture of the procedings and echoes Mr Tortoise's comments.


Festival Aid Report
This festival was once again held on the site at Darwen, near Blackburn, after the usual injunctions and battles had made the original site inaccessible.

This festival has been held in Lancashire for many years now and has become almost as well established as the festival at Stonehenge. Festival Aid is of the opinion that people will attend here every year whatever tactics the local councils and police may use to dissuade them, until a sensible compromise site is worked out between all parties.

Deeply Vale has always been a major event for the local youth and especially the unemployed unable to afford expensive paying concerts and events. Festival Aid and Release provided a mixed welfare team and were theonly service on site. The site, since known as "God's Nest", was high. and exposed and for a lot of the festival, drenched in low cloud. The festival goers could (simplistically) be divided into
the "Convoy" who are long term festival goers and self sufficient in most ways, and the younger visitors often spending only single days or nights on the site.

Because of the confusion over sites, there was no large stage, a major attraction at previous Deeply Vale festivals (famed for their good, well organised music) and attendance was much lower and more transient than previous years.

Although the police did not mount the random stops and searches of previous years in the immediate vicinity of the site, several people were unduly harrassed on shopping trips to the local town - even
the launderette.

Toilet trenches were dug, the EHO provided plastic lining for them and Release/Festival Aid provided rubbish bags. Water was available initially from a standpipe. This was soon disconnected and water was either obtained from streams or from the nearest town. There was a free food service and a crash tent.

The welfare team dealt with the usual cuts and burns. There were also two stabbings and an attempted rape on site. We were extremely concerned at the high incidence of contagious hepatitis amongst some festival goers (not helped by the insanitary conditions many festival goers are forced into) and some of their disregard for elementary precautions. Dogs on site also suffered from kennel cough and distemper and festival goers arranged for treatment with a local vet.

Deeply Vale was not enjoyed by many people and if the festival is to continue and meet the obvious needs of the young unemployed in the area, then negotiations with the apparently intransigent local councils must be held now.

Sally Ward
Roger Duncan
Vicki Stangroome

Festival Aid

MP Jack Straw attended.

Convoy Steve... "Probably the worst free festival I ever went to.... We (the Convoy) left Inglestone Common in the morning (can't remember the date) and slowly wended out way through the beautiful Gloucestershire lanes till we got to the M5. We soon stopped at Michael Woods services and took over the lorry park (not sure how many vehicles there were, probably upwards of 60) and Rico opened his cafe for brews ( tea, not special ?)

A couple of young idiots stole some sausage rolls from the services but, apart from that, nothing else untoward happened. We set off again and trundled (that's all a decent sized Convoy could do really) up the M5 stopping once again in Frankley services. A few of us had CB radios which were just coming into their own then... I was The Disgusting Reptile (obviously), Phil the Beer was Dognut, Alex was Popeye, Cherry was Olive, Pikie Pete was Red Leader and Brian from the Golden Apple Cafe was....Golden Apple. We left Frankley without incident as far as I can remember and headed off north up the M5 to join the M6 and that's where shit got weird. As we approached the greater Manchester area we started seeing lines of police blocking our exits off of the motorway and old bill standing shoulder to shoulder on bridges...quite theatrical and obviously designed to intimidate us - which didn't work of course.

What we didn't know at the time was that the forces of the state oop north had been told by the sinister forces of MI5 that the Convoy had trashed a police vehicle at Frankley services as as to prime them with hate and alarm. Greater Manchester Police were then ruled by James Anderton, a religious zealot who, no doubt was in reality a baby eating horse buggering granny fiddling pervert in denial, and he was determined to make life as difficult as possible for those brave and plucky brothers and sisters trundling up the M6 in a long line of clapped out vintage vehicles held together with sticky tape and love.
At one point Popeye put out a call 'STOP THE CONVOY' so we all just stopped and blocked all four lanes of the motorway which caused some mayhem and a certain amount of fisticuffs with gods own blue meanies.

Eventually we pulled off the M6 (by this time it was getting dark and we'd been on the road for about 10 hrs) onto another motorway and suddenly there were police vehicles everywhere... In front of me, behind me, either side of me... Literally hundreds of old bill and cop vans. I remember Lezzo whizzing up and down the hard shoulder on his vw powered trike trying to keep us together. We were brought to a halt by the forces of God and coppers were walking up and down telling us all to turn our engines off (see, even then they were concerned about the environment ?).

After some discussion and, I guess, being told that the deeply vale was out of bounds we were allowed to leave and make our was up to pickup bank where lots of people proceeded to get Hepatitis, the dogs all got Parvo, Jack straw (local mp and ex toker) came out and had a chat, and we all slithered around in gloopy mud for a week until we left in dribs and drabs and headed on down to a site in Bath. Not one of the best festies but memorable nevertheless "

was driving a car ahead of the convoy and saw some other cars and Van's stopped at the top of a hill on M6...Staffordshire?...they were all listening to CB radio..noticed there was no traffic going north..then in the distance the convoy appeared spread out across all 3 lanes and the hard shoulder with a massive traffic jam following interspersed with lots of flashing blue lights...amazing sight..spotting us the convoy pulled over which let the pigs through who attacked the lead vehicle so someone blocked the M6 with a Chinese 6 and the pigs let us go to Lancashire..

Roger B


. . it was def before mobile phones . . we were lining up to leave Inglestone , i was on my motorbike , the Bump came along and asked me to go to May Hill and tell some people in a bus up there , to meet with the convoy on the first motorway services . . . .so i did that , people on May Hill were ready to go and we met the convoy as planned . . . . . Lesso was on his trike , Burlington Bertie on a 400/4 and me , we were supposed to be the m/cycle outriders ? . . . when that bus pulled across the m/way i got off the bike and went into another bus for a cup of tea , lol , it was like coming in from some futuristic motorway horror movie into somebodies relaxed joint smoking living room , with tunes and a burner and a nice mug of tea , then shouting , engines , and we were off again into the night . .

Paul F


I was on the convoy that travelled from Stonehenge to Deeply Vale and then on to Pickup Bank.

We were driving North up the motorway and I remember that all the service stations were cordoned off. The convoy took up several miles of the motorway and all you could see in  front and behind for miles and miles were the blue flashing lights of the cops. At one point the convoy stopped. We had outriders who told us that, as our vehicles ran out of fuel at the back, they were being trashed by the police. I was in a bus roughly halfway along the convoy and our driver decided to pull the bus right across all the lanes of the motorway. Within minutes a half dozen cop cars and vans screeched up to us. Within 5 minutes the bus was surrounded by at least 6 deep policemen. They tried to hook up a Range-rover to the front of the bus to tow it away. The bus was full of us all singing songs, and watching in disbelief as we were surrounded by cops. The door was barricaded so they couldn’t get in. It was surreal. They abandoned the attempt to tow us away (what could a range rover do at that angle with all that weight, it was a dumb move on their part, but I guess they were desperate). It was late so there was very little traffic on the motorway, they had probably diverted as much of it as they could, but there were still a few people held up, and maybe because of that they restrained themselves from breaking our windows and dragging us out. The only real scuffles we had had at that point were at Inglestone. Finally our driver decided enough was enough and he started to reverse. All the cops leapt out of the way, and with that the whole convoy began to roll again.

When we were diverted from the deeply vale site there was a bit of confusion, but whoever was in the lead knew of a few different options. As we we left deeply vale (was that the Greater Manchester Police Area?) we moved into Lancashire and the police presence dropped drastically. As we approached the pickup bank site, which most of us had never seen before, we stopped by the side of the road to figure out how to get onto the site. The then sole cop car, rapidly blocked what appeared to be the only motor-able entrance. So there was a standoff. I remember many of us milling around outside our vehicles, with Bill Normal, issuing battle cries and talking battle strategy. After about 20 minutes, we saw another part of the convoy that had gotten delayed approaching up the hill from the distance. The road curved around, so as they approached they could clearly see the standoff along with the lay of the land. I think it was Gypsy Dave in the lead Vehicle, which was an old military 4x4. They were coming up slowly, reconnoitring, then Dave made a strategic decision and entered the site from the side in a gap between the other convoy vehicles, and as we held our breath, successfully and very bumpily entered the site along with all the convoy behind him. The cops made a futile attempt to stop it but it was too late. To loud cheers we all mounted our vehicles and in sheer pandemonium we entered the site.

I was with ‘Manik’ Mark and Sarah and the kids, including the later well known 'little Chris’ (who then teamed up with another kid, Willem, they had a bender at Inglestone the following year, a couple of right characters, 14 year old convoy wheeler dealers). I had made a Sioux tipi up on May Hill from a tarp given me by Dazzer, when we were squatting in Lewes with George and gang. I had previously been traveling with Moff, Jane and Russ, the Geek (the first ‘licensed' drongo on the festie scene), bender Dave, Tom, etc. from the green and yellow tipi.

I teamed up with Mark and Sarah when the tipi was finished. Mark had a little blue pickup to carry it around on. The poles only just fit on top of his van, it looked a bit funny, they were about 27 feet long. We sold the lodge to Pikey Pete in ‘78 as far as I remember. Anyway, we moved onto the pickup bank site and it was difficult to find a place to pitch the tipi, the land was all up and down and very windswept. I don’t remember how many days we were there. But one evening it rained torrentially. The kids were all tucked up in bed in the lodge when I went outside, only to see water welling up out of the ground in front, and flowing towards the door. I woke everyone up and we only just got everything into the van, including the carpet, before the water flowed in over the drongo pit and into the fire which hissed and died as the wood floated across the tipi floor. It was a strange site….

Greg Clarke


This was the end for this particular festival, it appears that the bad experience at the site in 81 ( the hard drug use , sexual violence and hostility of authorities -which was a carry over with problems encountered as far back as Deeply Vale 1979 ) was the final straw. However, as a postscript, Paul , an ex-member of the convoy sent me this
 

Despite Pickup Bank being recorded on your website as last staging a festival in 1981, the site was in fact used as a camp for The Convoy in 1984, post Stonehenge and Montgomery festivals, although I can't remember if any organised stage was assembled.  We camped there for about 2 weeks before a move to a site on the old Northumberland/Cumberland/Durham border - the name escapes me now, but it is a site of antiquity with a Celtic monument or ring.  Following on from here, we moved into Yorkshire to the now infamous Nostell Priory festival, where a taste of what was to come in 85 was experienced at the hands of theYorkshire Police, who had just completed an operation (now also infamous) at the Orgreave Coking Plant.
 
Anyway, great site and loads of nostalgia for me - Deeply Vale 1978 - my 1st free festival.  I remember Hillage coming on stage as the rain stopped.  Magic.
 
Be lucky, healthy and wise.  I'm still with you all every day of my life.
 
Tear in the eye and lump in the throat.

 

Paul.


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We are proud of the contribution we have made to Andy Worthington's sociological history of Stonehenge and the free festival scene in the UK .This new book gives a fascinating insight into the various counter cultural obsessions with the Stones and provides a variety of new perspectives to many of the key events surrounding the Henge such as the Battle Of The Beanfield and the more recent attempts hold a celebration at the Stones during the Solstice.

 

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Sending details of a small book I've just self-published which might be of interest to some readers of your admirable site.

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Tibetan Ukranian Mountain Troupe-surreal pranksters of the Traveller community .

Acidia Lightshow Lightshow for Windsor festival and Stonehenge in the 1970s.

Traveller Daves Website - Chock full of of free festival photos !

Many, many thanks go to Roger Hutchinson , Big Steve , Roger Duncan, Celia, Will , Chazz, Jeza ,Chris Hewitt ,The Fabulous Time Tortoise , Peter Piwowarski - ( 70s music site/photos ) Martin S, Steve Austin ,Traveller Dave, Herb, Tim Brighton, Vin Miles, Haze Evans , Noddy Guevara, Chris Brown, Janet Thompson, David Stooke, Gary Gibbons , Nigel Ayers, Rich Deakin ,Glenda Pescardo,Justin Warman,Brian F, Steve Bayfield, Kev Ellis, Paul Seaton and many other minor contributors for their help in providing the archival material related to these free festivals which has at enabled us to construct the site .

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