Lord Cardigan encounters angry driver in access dispute

THE Earl of Cardigan has told how he was confronted by an angry motorist after he erected a barrier across his land to prevent an automatic right of way.

Lord Cardigan, David Brudenellbruce, said he was manhandled and sworn at by a driver who objected to him closing access to Savernake Forest, in Wiltshire, the only ancient forest in Britain still in private hands.

He says the driver “threatened to tear off ” his head as he stood at the barrier to the 4,500-acre forest, near Marlborough on Jan 4. He had been trying to exercise his right to seal off his land to outsiders for 24 hours once a year so it

‘He ran up to me... put his face literally one inch from mine and told me to get out of the effing way’

did not become a Public Right of Way by default. This is to stop the public saying they have crossed the land 365 days in succession – the first step to creating a right of way across private property.

But the 69-year-old was greeted with a furious response after he had placed a line of traffic cones where his estate’s Grand Avenue meets the A4 between Marlborough and Hungerford.

“Around 9am, a man drove up to my barrier of traffic cones, threw them into the bushes with me sitting, bewildered, in my car just six feet away. Then he went back to his car to force his way through the barrier,” Lord Cardigan said. “I replaced my cones before he could do so … He ran up to me, purple with rage, put his face literally one inch from mine and told me to get out of the effing way.”

Lord Cardigan advised the man, who later drove off, to find another entrance.

Wiltshire Police is investigating.