At 2.02 pm on Monday December 7th I was crossing
a field with my dog on her lead on a South Easterly, roughly diagonal route on
a public FP which has been ploughed up and overgrown with crops, on land owned
by R. Hancy and Sons, when I saw a farm vehicle (a crop-spraying tractor, I
think) coming down a track that leads south from the R. Hancy farmyard, heading
towards the field I was crossing. I stopped and turned on the video recorder on
my phone, as I have suffered abuse and intimidation in the past from members of
the Hancy family for walking on Public FPs that cross their land, and wanted to
keep a record in case I suffered the same intimidation again. By the time I had
activated the recorder, however, the tractor had used its first opportunity to
turn round at the point where the farm track reaches the field. It then headed
back, stopped for a few seconds, then started again and reached the farmyard,
where it stayed parked. I could see that the driver had got out. I felt it was
possible that the driver had seen me and was returning to the farmyard to
report it.
A few years ago, I had been crossing the same field watched
by Reginald Hancy from his car, which slowed down and stopped to observe me,
and the next day, I found that all four of my cars tyres had been slashed in
our driveway overnight. I therefore felt the need to record any activity that
may show either that I had been observed or to record any intimidatory
behaviour that might follow. I suspect the tyre slashing might have been done
as a warning to me not to use that FP. I have no proof, however, that this
crime was anything more than a coincidence, hence the need to keep recording
moments such as these, to try and establish a definite pattern in the vandalism
that had been done to my property.
By 02.09 pm I had crossed the field and headed South along
the farm track (which is also a public FP) towards the SE corner of the field.
While there I stopped to photograph a scarecrow which had been put up in the corner
of the field.
It seems that the scarecrow might be put there to deter not just
crows. It has a Hi-Viz jacket, is holding a rough cut-out piece of wood attached
to a rod, seemingly to look like a long-barrelled gun of some kind, and
bizarrely is wearing night vision goggles.
Just as I had photographed the scarecrow, I saw a car
leaving the farmyard and head south towards me. I left the field and continued
a little way on the footpath, onto the property of an adjoining farm. I waited
and filmed the car as the driver slowed down to look at me through a long gap
in the boundary hedge as the car passed on, the driver, (a woman, I think)
turned to look at me, and I could hear a dog barking inside the car. I walked a
little further south along the path and saw that the car (a grey Volvo) had
turned sharp right and was now heading west along the track that skirts the
southern edge of the field I had just crossed. I filmed the car again, as it had
stopped about 150 metres away and let the dog (a black Labrador) out and then
driven on. It parked at a junction where another FP crosses the track, at the
South Western corner of the field. There the driver got out and walked
southwards with her dog along a footpath.
Knowing that if I had continued my walk and gone in a huge
clockwise circle (as I normally do), I would in all likelihood have to meet
this woman and her dog, I decided to double back and walk home the way I’d
come.
I walked back across the field on the diagonal path (this
time SE to NW), keeping an eye out to see if the car was still parked where I
had last seen it. It stayed parked.
Keeping to the path, I headed West, then crossed an E-W
ditch, and following the same path, headed North on the FP in a straight line, with the R
Hancy farmyard about 300 yards away to my right. It was from this path that I
noticed that the grey Volvo had reached the southern approach to the farmyard,
but had stopped just short of the farmyard itself. The driver had got out and
appeared to be watching me. I waved.
As I was nearing the last third of the straight N-S path
that leads eventually to Heath Road on the edge of Banham village, I saw that a
4x4 which I suspected at the time to be the one that belongs to R. Hancy,
heading North, parallel to me, and also towards where his farm track meets
Heath Road about half a mile to the East of where the path I was on meets it.
I saw the car turn right at the junction with Heath Road.
As I neared Heath Road, I could see the same car was parked
on Heath Road, pointing in my direction, about ¼ of a mile away, from a spot
outside the only house that is on Heath Road between me and the trackway to the
R. Hancy farm. I crossed Heath Road then stopped to look at the car to identify
it. It then drove quite slowly Westward along Heath Road towards me. I waited
and started my video camera just in case the driver felt the urge to threaten
me, but then it stopped again. I waited a little while, then continued to walk
Northwards on the FP that leads behind some back gardens that adjoin a field.
I turned as I walked and saw that the car had started again,
and so I turned on my camera and filmed Reginald Hancy as he drove past me in
his Blue Nissan 4x4 at about 15 mph, staring at me through the open driver’s
window.
All this is on record in case anything happens to us or our
property in the coming days, to help eliminate coincidence.
