Ever had that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? Nick Jones must have done when he peered out from his beautiful home in West Sussex at the start of the bank holiday weekend and saw what was happening in the field just a few yards from his garden fence.

In fact, his stomach probably dropped, metaphorically speaking, through the floor of whichever room he was standing in at the time.

The four-acre site, previously empty grassland, was now a hive of unwelcome, noisy activity, with trucks coming and going, industrial excavators at work, tarmac being laid and mobile homes and caravans appearing.

He knew it could only mean one thing: travellers had turned up in the idyll that is West Chiltington (population around 3,400) and had no intention of leaving.

But Mr Jones, a successful lawyer, had more reason than anyone else in the village to feel 'devastated' by the arrival of the unwanted neighbours who have already subjected residents to verbal threats and abuse.

One reason, of course, is that his 17th-century, grade II, five-bedroom farmhouse, which has a heated swimming pool and tennis court and is worth in excess of £2million (or at least it was), is the closest property to the illegal encampment almost literally on his doorstep.

The other was that Mr Jones knew only too well – when the nightmare scenario began unfolding before his eyes last Friday – that he was responsible, albeit unintentionally, for bringing the travellers to West Chiltington in the first place.

Mr Jones, you see, used to keep horses on the fields to the side of Broadford Bridge Road, but when he no longer had any use for the land he sold it to a developer for £200,000 on July 21 last year.

He believed that the buyer intended to build four or five executive homes on the site and took precautions to ensure it could not be put to other uses.

To protect the character and value of the surrounding area, the sale was subject to restrictive covenants, legally binding promises that dictate how an owner or future owners can use the land.

These specifically stated that the site could not be used for caravans or static homes.

A clause was also inserted on the title register at the Land Registry to prevent the site being sold to a third party without the written consent of Mr Jones and his wife.

Mr Jones, 57, after all, works for a London law firm and knows his way round a contract. His legal stipulations should have been sufficient to deter any unscrupulous behaviour.

Instead, the sale of this seemingly inconsequential strip of land backfired spectacularly. Mr Jones says that the developer divided the land into plots and sold them to a number of different buyers, some of whom were seemingly travellers, who don't play by the normal rules.

Inevitably, some locals, perhaps unaware of the circumstances behind Mr Jones's decision to sell the plot or his attempts to 'foolproof' the deal, blame him for 'ruining' the village.

Referring to the travellers, Mr Jones told the Daily Mail as he was leaving his home earlier in the week: 'I am working hard to get rid of them.'

In a subsequent call, he explained: 'We sold to a developer who made many representations that we relied upon. We believed them to be legitimate, so we signed up and we protected ourselves fully contractually with very heavy restrictive covenants on the use of the land.'

Mr Jones later got wind of the developer reneging on the 'contractually agreed strategy' and tried to pull out of the deal. But after losing litigation, he reluctantly had to complete the sale.

He said: 'It is devastating for us, as it is for other villagers. We are working closely with our neighbours and the council to rectify the situation. Our lawyers are working on it. We are confident that private legal action for breach of the covenants on use of the land, working in conjunction with council enforcement officers, will prevail in the end.'

Be that as it may, it will be a tricky uphill task. Legal battles with travellers are usually protracted and rarely successful.

Land Registry documents show the transfer of the land by Mr Jones to a company called UK Real Estate And Land 1 Limited that was subject to the restrictive covenants. But that firm has now been dissolved following a voluntary strike-off application – the process used by directors to close a solvent business.

We have been unable to contact anyone who was involved with the firm, and it is not clear who owns the plot at the centre of the controversy.

One of the firm's previous directors, however, was Chad Brady, a 31-year-old Yorkshireman, who is not thought to be part of the traveller community.

His CV is troubling. Brady was named at Hull Crown Court last year as the 'manager' of a lucrative cocaine dealing operation in the seaside town of Bridlington where he recruited his own sister as a £150 runner.

Brady, who was given a two-year suspended sentence and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work and ten days' rehabilitation, resigned from the 'board' of UK Real Estate when the criminal case got under way last January.

This is the backstory of how sleepy West Chiltington, about 12 miles from the historic market town of Horsham, ended up being invaded by travellers, a phenomenon that has become all too common up and down the country.

Council offices are closed until Tuesday over bank holiday weekends, which makes enforcement action more difficult.

Horsham District Council was already on 'red alert' because of a Facebook post by a construction firm saying tipper trucks were needed (to deliver aggregate) in the Horsham area for £200 a load.

A temporary 'stop notice' requiring any unauthorised work to cease – 'considered to be the most appropriate course of action' by the authority – was served on Saturday, May 23.

Sussex Police attended to support the council 'to prevent a breach of the peace'.

By definition, such notices cannot be served until after illegal activity has started, which means that retrospective planning permission can then be applied for building work already carried out – including hardcore standings, for example – and human rights legislation ruthlessly exploited to avoid eviction.

It's the Catch 22 at the heart of a system that protects travellers and punishes residents.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said this has created 'two-tier' justice, which she has pledged to end by leaving the European Convention on

Human Rights (ECHR) if the Conservative Party wins the next general election.

'We all feel intimidated,' said one long-standing West Chiltington householder.

Someone else found a traveller in his garden. 'When I asked him what on earth he was doing and he said he was looking for something he had dropped. I didn't believe him.'

He believes the intruder was trying to tap into his water supply and divert it to the camp – a familiar tactic, along with stealing electricity – and has reported his concerns to Southern Water.

Others hold Mr Jones responsible for the predicament the village finds itself in.

'It really is an own goal,' said a deeply worried resident. 'It has ruined village life, I fear, for ever.'

There could be few less suitable places for a travellers' camp.

West Chiltington, a quintessentially English village, has a croquet club, a brass band (rehearsals every Wednesday evening, St Mary's Church hall, 'new members of all abilities welcome') and several established vineyards including Nyetimber, which is arguably the most prestigious name in English sparkling wine. Part of the picturesque landscape is now an eyesore.

Industrial machinery is scattered across the field next to the Jones residence, along with at least seven static homes and caravans and around five vans.

And who knows how many more travellers could be on their way there.

Gates and sewage pipes were being installed in the week despite the 'stop notice'.

Up to 100 lorry loads of crushed concrete have been delivered to the site already. Beginning on Saturday morning, the din has been deafening, say local residents. 'They started at 7.15am and there were already five loads there before the council's enforcement order at 8am,' revealed a man who lives and works in West Chiltington.

'Everything after that was in breach of planning, but it went on until at least 6pm with the same lorries going backwards and forwards.'

Determined to find out where the lorries were from, he followed some of the vehicles to the haulier Cook & Son in nearby Crawley.

In 2024, the company was fined £24,000 and charged costs of £12,500 by magistrates in Brighton for dumping hundreds of lorry-loads of waste illegally on a Surrey golf course over five months in 2018.

Environment Agency officers found the discarded loads contained glass, wood, plastic, tarmac, brick, concrete and other materials.

The man who spoke to us said he believed the actual trucks were from other contractors, but they appeared to be collecting aggregate supplied by Cook & Son.

When asked about activities over the bank holiday weekend, a woman who answered the phone confirmed that the firm sells crushed concrete, but added: 'Then it is up to them what they do with it.'

The village source said that he also counted 48 loads of tarmac chippings that had been delivered from elsewhere. 'They put the crushed concrete down to build a base and topped it off with tarmac chippings for a nice finish,' he explained.

'It has doubtless lowered the value of everybody's property fivefold. I know of one sale that has fallen through already.'

UK Real Estate And Land 1 Limited also purchased land in the hamlet of Willows Green near Felsted in Essex for £125,000 about three months before it acquired the West Chiltington plot from Mr Jones.

A similar development was subsequently erected during the first May bank holiday which was carried out with 'military precision', just like in West Chiltington, with dozens of vehicles delivering tonnes of hardcore, fencing materials and septic tanks, resulting in 140 complaints to the local council from concerned residents.

Construction work continued in violation of a temporary 'stop notice,' just like it did in West Chiltington. Three other sites were targeted in three different counties, Kent, Lincolnshire and Derbyshire, over the most recent public holiday.

On Tuesday night, a cricket field in another part of West Sussex was taken over by travellers. Most of the 15 motorhomes, caravans and cars were parked on the boundary of Clayton recreation ground but – in a particularly egregious act of vandalism – some of the vehicles had driven on to the pitch itself, raising fears that the playing square could be ruined by tyre ruts.

In West Chiltington, there is only one topic of conversation. 'Nick was particularly upset when travellers arrived at another site about half a mile away,' said a resident. 'There haven't been any problems, but he was very vocal in his opposition. We all were.'

The irony in all of this is cruel indeed. Surely, there can be few starker examples of the law of unintended consequences than Mr Jones's decision to sell the field next to his home.

The property, which he and his family moved into in 2009, is what is known as a Sussex hall house, a traditional medieval, timber-framed dwelling that was historically occupied by prosperous yeoman farmers.

It still includes many of the original features. A report in the local paper highlighted 'the double-height entrance hall with flagstone flooring and oak staircase'.

The estate agent said the house, which also came with its own orchard, benefited from a 'high degree of privacy' and a 'delightful outlook.'

Which it did. Until last Friday. 

Additional reporting: Jon Austin and Isaac Crowson