Villagers in Dorchester-on-Thames, South Oxfordshire, are battling former UKIP treasurer and city lawyer Andrew Reid after “he put fences around 'Pooh Sticks meadow'.”

Residents in Dorchester-on-Thames were shocked when city lawyer Andrew Reid bought 303 acres of the 845-acre Bishop's Court Farm estate for £4m for farming last year and started putting up barbed wire fences around fields where some claim that families have played and picnicked for generations.

The rolling patchwork of pastures, in the shadow of Wittenham Clumps hill on the banks of the Thames, includes the famous meadow by Day’s Lock where the World Pooh Sticks Championships were held for more than 30 years.

Some local residents claim that the previous owner of Bishop's Court Farm, Anne Bowditch, had always been happy for villagers and visitors to tramp across her meadows, but she passed away in September 2015.

Mr Reid, a senior partner at RMPI solicitors, bought the property last year through a company called Vision Residences (Two) LLP.

The first many villagers knew about it was when spiked fences started shooting up across the fields in October.

Mr Reid then sent Oxfordshire County Council an official map of the entire estate, marking out exactly which paths were public rights of way, with the rest being private land.

That official declaration means the villagers now have exactly one year from the date it was submitted (November 2) to challenge the fences – and that is exactly what they are doing.

A group of residents, led by lawyer and mum-of-three Becky Waller, are preparing to apply to Oxfordshire County Council for two of Mr Reid’s fields – Day’s Lock Meadow and Dyke Hills – to be granted public Village Green status.

If they get can convince the council of their claim that the land should be publicly accessible, it will mean villagers and visitors can picnic, play and even hold fetes there in perpetuity.

If they can’t, generations of tradition will be lost, they warn.

Mrs Waller, 49, who lives in Dorchester with her husband Martin and their three sons, said: “We won’t want to make this a personal thing but people have been really upset by this because this area of land has always been open.

“There have always been areas people saw as places to picnic and play games.

“What has happened feels enclosing and suffocating, not least because these fences have two lines of barbed wire on them.”

The villagers’ campaign has now been backed by the head of the national Open Spaces Society.

General secretary Kate Ashbrook said: “We deplore the mass of ugly fencing which has been festooned across the paths and green spaces in this beautiful landscape, and we welcome the campaign to record people’s long-held rights to enjoy these historic paths and spaces.

“We look forward to helping the local people to record their rights so that they are protected for ever more.”

The Oxford Mail attempted to contact Mr Reid through his law firm RMPI but did not receive a response before publication of the article.

Mr Reid disputes the claims. He says the previous owner had experienced substantial problems with local residents which were not disclosed to him when he bought the farm. He had been assured that the previous owner had not created any public rights of way over the farm, except for those on the Definitive Map.

Mr Reid says he has worked with Oxfordshire County Council and the Parish Council to improve the existing fencing on the farm. This was to indicate clearly the public rights of way and to protect the public from his livestock and his livestock from the public. He had also responded to local requests and gifted land to widen the public footpaths. Mr Reid says he has never sought to limit or extinguish any pre-existing rights but has sought to allow the public to enjoy safe and secure access across his land on the public footpaths.

The Oxford Mail is content to clarify the position