Our village is being invaded. Don’t we have human rights?
This used to be such a decent place.
Little Thorley was one of those thriving villages that punctuate the English countryside with find old buildings, farms that go back generations, and a community that is openly proud of its history.
Lord Nelson had his country home here, and there are families with roots that go back to the Doomesday book.
But one night in May last year, Little Thorley suffered an invasion that put villagers in terror and threatened to change the nature of the ancient community for ever.
In darkness a procession of caravans pulled by four-wheel-drive-vehicles and saloons, including BMWs and Mercedes, glided along the lane that leads to LowerThorley, the several hundred acres of farmland at the top of a Hertfordshire village.
The sinister convoy brought scores of young men in designed clothes and gold jewellery. They knew exactly what they wanted. Within a few weeks, the harmless tinkers who had lived peacefully on this site for decades had all but disappeared, driven out by an army of violent Irish travellers.
In the months that followed the scores became hundreds.
They poured tons of rubble into the land and started to put up not just hard standings for their caravans, but permanent homes and buildings. None had planning permission.
The site – with its gold-tipped railings and gabled bungalows – threatens to become the biggest traveller encampment in Britain.
Meanwhile, the lanes and woods around the area have been turned into a massive rubbish tip strewn with old sofas, washing machines, burned-out vehicles and stinking household waste. Angry locals have been told they can do nothing about it because the travellers – many of whom have palatial homes in Ireland – are simply exercising their human rights.
But last night, the seeds of a Middle England revolution were sown after more than 1,000 Little Thorley residents pledged to withhold council tax until the local authority sorts out the problem.
One farmer, who has worked at home Farm for 32 years stood on the boundary of his land and declared: ‘It’s utter madness. What the hell happened to our human rights.
The travellers arrived in droves last Easter after the first wave secured the land.
But over the summer, the village – which has a population of 7,000 – endured nightly car races down the Main Road, a spate of thefts and burglaries, and abusive youngsters wandering through the streets.
Terrifying tales of intimidation, dangerous driving and other anti-social behaviour by the travellers are commonplace in the pubs and shops.
The unsolved murder of a local postman outside the Lamb and Flag pub last December has also inflamed passions.
In addition, locals claim that since last year more than 750 incidents involving the travellers have been reported to the police, with no action taken.