With its lush green fields and horses grazing on sun-dappled pastures, it's hard to imagine a more tranquil spot than the country lanes on the outskirts of the Cheshire village of Burtonwood on a summer's day.
So, on the evening of Friday, May 23, the residents of the houses dotted along Tan House Lane and Farmer's Lane, which it curves into, were looking forward to enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend in their bucolic hideaways. But they were in for a very rude awakening.
'They came in en masse, truck after truck after truck, all through the night as they got to work,' says one despairing local. 'It was a massive convoy, like an Army operation. The noise was unbearable – you couldn't sleep.'
This invasion of machines, including bulldozers, headed for a six-acre plot of greenbelt land recently acquired by travellers.
Once there, the vehicles 'tore it apart', in the words of another horrified homeowner who lives about a hundred yards away.
