Dale Farm

Drive2Survive activists marked the 10th anniversary of the eviction of Dale Farm in Essex by revisiting the wasteland left behind after the biggest eviction in British peacetime. In October 2011, around 200 bailiffs evicted 80 families from Dale Farm, Europe’s largest Traveller site, over three days. Caravans and buildings were removed or demolished. Drive2Survive is a coalition of Romany Gypsy, Irish Traveller, nomadic activists and community organisations opposed to the Police, Crime,…

As I write, we are on the eve of a last-ditch high court judgement on the long road to eviction at Dale Farm. At a time of great tension, outside activists like myself are deeply committed to resisting the eviction, yet in the media and in parts of the wider Gypsy and Traveller community, divisions have opened between direct activists and those pursuing legal approaches to preventing the eviction.

When I first visited Dale Farm, I asked myself whether activist visitors’ efforts to…

After much dithering, we ended up driving North on Sunday night heading for Dale Farm, ducking under the Thames at Dartford, and emerging in Essex, new and alien ground for us. Breaking right towards Basildon and then onto back roads, we were anticipating blocked roads and searches, and parked discreetly some distance from the site. We needn’t have worried. Walking in, there was an extraordinary air of calm, with a few quiet words of welcome and thanks from Travellers as we walked in the…

Dale Farm in Essex is the UK's largest Travellers' community. They have been fighting for ten years to remain there but now 500 people face eviction from 31 August. The Conservative-led Basildon council has set aside £18 million for an eviction, while supporters have set up a solidarity camp at the site.

There are mostly Irish Travellers at Dale Farm where many have lived for 30 years. They own the site but were refused planning permission because the land, a former scrap-yard, is…

Dale Farm in Essex is the UK’s largest Travellers’ community. The residents have been fighting for ten years to remain there but now 90 families of 500 people, many of them children, face eviction from 31 August. The Conservative-led Basildon Council has set aside £18 million for an eviction which could take weeks, while supporters have set up a solidarity camp at the site.

The community at Dale Farm are predominantly Irish Travellers and many have lived there for 30 years. They own…

Dale Farm, a former scrapyard between Wickford and Billericay in Essex, the largest Traveller site in the UK is under threat of eviction.

About one-third of the site is authorised. After redesignating the remainder as greenbelt, Basildon borough council has refused planning permission to the 90 families who own plots/yards there. The council has asked central government for up to £10m for an eviction which may take three weeks. Once the 28-day quit or be evicted notices are served,…

A pensioner like myself, an elderly man accosted me outside the railway station: “Hey, Mr Gypsy - you. You're a lot of land-grabbers! We don't want you in Crays Hill.” “If you mean Dale Farm,” I said, hiding my anger, “Travellers bought that land.” “Come off it,” he said, coming up closer. “Fucking thieves the lot of you. You should be put off there.”

In the exchange that followed, he said he was voting for the British National Party and wanted Gypsies deported or dead. It was two…

The largest traveller dwelling in the UK is under threat following a decision by Basildon Council to evict all 220 caravans from the site.

On Tuesday 26 July during the eviction of an adjacent site, a bulldozer drove through a protected yard at Dale Farm causing extensive damage. Meanwhile notice had been served on the Dale Farm travellers with eviction due to take place on Sunday 31 July. At the last minute solicitor Keith Lomax successfully obtained a further injunction protecting…