Owners of Cotswolds magnificence spot use outdated caravans to fence off website

The new owners of a Cotswolds beauty spot have sparked disbelief after using wrecked old caravans to block off the perimeters of their site – after wire fences were cut into daily by vandals.

Residents say the land, near Stonehouse in Gloucestershire, has been blighted by the bizarre move which saw its owners ‘dump’ broken caravans around the site.

But the managers of Verney Fields say they have acted to try to stop further vandalism.

Verney Fields has become a bone of contention between the town and the site’s new owners. People had previously walked freely across the area for many years but that ended when barbed wire fences were erected last year after the land changed ownership.

One of the caravans left next to a fence at Verney Fields in the Cotswolds

Another of the caravans tight up against a fence at the countryside site in Gloucestershire

The field circled in red is where the caravans have been put in lieu of fixing broken fencing

The issue has become a matter of huge public concern in the market town and Stonehouse Town Council has submitted an application for town and village green status for the site, which has three public rights of way across it. 

Tree preservation orders for the site were granted by Stroud District Council last November but now residents say the caravans have spoiled the views across the much-loved fields, which lie within the Cotswolds National Landscape.

Verney Fields’ owners say they have placed the caravans there because they have had to spend 200 hours repairing fences cut by vandals across the site – causing them a ‘great deal of loss’.

But residents are dismayed. One, Steve Armstrong, said: ‘To return from a weekend away to be confronted by caravans dumped over a much-loved landscape was truly shocking.

‘For over a year the new owner and their representatives have claimed to be farmers with a desire to protect wildlife. To dump scrap caravans over the land with clear disregard for the environment unfortunately shows them in their true colours.’

Sarah Hughes, who lives near Verney Fields, said the caravans have degraded the area.

‘There doesn’t seem to be any plausible reason why anyone would do that.

‘At first I thought it was fly-tipping. It must have been really hard to get the caravans all the way up the hill and down the other side,’ she said.

Residents claim the caravans have been ‘dumped’ on the land but its managers say they are needed to prevent further vandalism to fences

Caravans in view close to one of the public footpaths that go through the land

Scott Curtis, another resident, said he was in disbelief when he first saw the caravans on Verney Fields last week.

‘It’s a bizarre sight and it can’t have been easy to get them up there,’ he said.

Meanwhile, Liz Hillary, who lives close by, said: ‘The new owners of Verney Fields have always insisted that they want to manage the land well and these recent actions are not in keeping with their professed vision for the area.’ 

Nick Fawkes, from Stonehouse, was also left he was deeply saddened that the once beautiful wild area is now being used ‘to dump wrecked caravans’.

Windmill Farm, which manages the site on behalf of the owners, says the caravans were brought in as a response to ‘very regular, sometimes daily’ fence cutting by vandals.

It maintains that while caravans may seem an unusual choice for fencing, the owners needed something ‘more rigid’ that ‘couldn’t be easily cut through’.

A spokesperson for Windmill Farm said: ‘Sadly we have spent over 200 hours repairing cut-through fences and vandalism since last autumn, time which has been taken away from other farming activities and cost us a great deal of loss.

‘We’d very much like to be able to use our farmland as intended, but a select few local activists, with nothing better to do, insist on making it their mission to interfere with local agriculture and prevent us from farming our land.’

The owners said the town and village green application would impose restrictions on apple tree planting if it were successful.

They added: ‘We’ve been trying to get a grazing tenant since last year, but unfortunately three interested potential grazers have withdrawn interest over the months due to very regular, sometimes daily, fence cutting and fields not remaining stock proof for any duration.

‘If some members of the public are causing a disruption to agriculture, it is a farmer’s right to take measures to enable themselves to farm their land. The public are not entitled to any ‘amenity’ or any part of our private farmland.

‘While caravans may seem like an unusual fencing material, we needed to use something more rigid which couldn’t be easily cut through, especially around harvest time, when our attention needs to be spent on fruit and not repairing fence damage done by these persistent criminals.’