UK farmers resorting to ‘medieval’ methods to repel thieves

Police helping farmers build earthworks as low-cost defence against wave of rural crime

Lavender farm
Farmers harvesting lavender in Banstead
(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Desperate farmers are erecting medieval-style defences on their land in an attempt to stem a growing tide of rural crime in the UK.

Earthen embankments, stockades and ditches, used as fortifications since the Middle Ages, have sprung up on farms around the country aimed at deterring livestock “rustlers” and thieves who target valuable farm machinery.

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