Headline:
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current
life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history
influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining
village in Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what
dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly
there was no work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different
family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived
abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important
job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and
people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other
places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and
travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in
convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys
and closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There
used to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the
Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of
the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from
school and my dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is
where they met - when they were arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would
never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
1
In our regular column inviting contributors to reflect on how their past has affected their current
life, award winning documentary maker, Summer Avery, reflects on how her family history
influenced her choice of career.
My parents came from totally different backgrounds. My dad, Dave, comes from a mining
village in Yorkshire. For generations, all the boys in his family went down the pit and that's what
dad was going to do, too. But in the 1980s they started closing down the mines and suddenly
there was no work for young men like my dad. My mum, Lucy, came from a very different
family. Her father was a diplomat, Mum went to boarding school because her parents lived
abroad. They expected her to go to Oxford or Cambridge University and then do an important
job, but she was a rebellious girl.
The early 1980s in the UK was a time of great change. Big industries were closing down and
people from communities like my dad's were losing their jobs and their hope. But in other
places, new enterprises were starting up and some people were getting very rich very quickly.
These changes led to political protests and some people rejected mainstream lifestyles altogether.
Among those people were the 'New Age Travellers.' They lived in old lorries and buses and
travelled from one music festival to another. These lorries and buses used to travel together in
convoys and they were unpopular with many people. The police kept breaking up the convoys
and closing down the festivals. The travellers kept regrouping and planning more festivals. There
used to be a very popular free festival at Stonehenge* on Summer Solstice*. In 1985, the
Travellers were determined to hold this festival and huge numbers joined the convoys. Two of
the people who went to join the peace convoy were my mum, who had decided to run away from
school and my dad, who had decided to escape unemployment by going on the road. That is
where they met - when they were arrested at Stonehenge! It's funny to think that they would
never have met if they hadn't gone to that festival.
1
