A PUB landlady said she was left "fearing for her life" when a group of travellers moved in on the town's Rec last week.

Businesses and the junior football club in the town are left counting the cost of the incursion, which involved around 30 vehicles.

They arrived a week ago and were finally removed by Wiltshire Police at the weekend, heading to Lechlade and then Fairford.

The Goldfinger Tavern experienced a loss of around £2,500 after being forced to close for two-and-a-half days in what was described as "another lockdown".

Landlady Sharon Johnson, still shaken by her ordeal, said: “They were rude, demanding and intimidated my locals. It was a nightmare because we’re a family pub. 

"I had bingo going on in one half, and a scout group meeting out the back, many of them were frightened.  

“They surrounded me outside and they were in my face. I’ve never feared for my life before and I’ve been a landlord for years, but I feared for my life then. 

"I was able to get inside, and my hand was shaking so much I could barely open the door.”

Police were called to the Goldfinger Tavern that evening and assisted in removing the travellers, with Sharon full of praise for their efforts. 

Highworth Town Juniors Football Club bore the brunt of the criminal damage, which is likely to cost thousands of pounds to fix. 

A gate to the club's outdoor storage area had been broken open, goals and football equipment were smashed up, and an expensive line marker machine had been repeatedly used as a toilet. The cost of this damage is thought to be in the thousands. 

Like the Goldfinger Tavern, other businesses made the difficult decision to close in order to protect staff and customers. 

Corina from Highworth Recreation Centre said: “A few of them had asked to use the facilities which we allowed, but after we saw reports of their behaviour elsewhere the decision was made to only allow paying members into the centre.

“After this staff were verbally abused and threatened to the point where he had to call the police. We then made the decision to close for staff safety on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning.”

All the bookings the leisure centre had during this period had to be cancelled, with the company taking the financial hit.

Another local business owner nearby, who wished to remain anonymous, mentioned several instances of verbal abuse to their staff. 

At the allotment to the Rec – where human excrement had been found in water troughs – a Highworth resident was tending to his patch yesterday. 
He was picking up discarded wet wipes and excrement. For him the cost was loss of time spent growing his veg. 

The community came together to clean up the Rec field, filling a skip with rubbish that had been left behind. 

A solitary abandoned caravan had been ransacked and left. Swindon Borough Council removed it on Tuesday afternoon. 

An environmental team had previously cleaned an area of human excrement over the weekend.  

A Swindon Borough Council spokesperson said: “The area was cleaned up yesterday by our environmental team working with Highworth Town Council. We would like to thank the teams for their efforts in making this site safe.”

The travellers were ordered to leave their latest site in Fairford yesterday, having set up camp at Coln House School playing fields.

Officers from Gloucestershire County Council visited the site yesterday.

A council spokesperson said: “We visited the rugby field at Coln School, Fairford to carry out a welfare check and serve a section 77 notice which informs the travellers that they are illegally occupying land at the rugby club and should leave the area immediately.

“If they remain, our next action would be to serve a court summons which will allow us to obtain a court order and instruct bailiffs to move them on.

“As soon as the site is vacated, we will arrange for it to be cleaned straight away."