The Wild Horses of Newbury

 Mark Carroll

 

During the infamous anti road building protests at Newbury, England in 1996-1997,
Mark Carroll made a short film called 'The Wild Horses of Newbury'

'The Wild Horses of Newbury' was shot very early on a single morning in February.
The whole episode only lasted a few minutes.. nothing was staged.
 The bypass security guards and police had circled two very old Oak trees and were preparing to chop them down,
 when two scruffy, seemingly wild horses appeared and began to interfere with the felling.
 One of the horses even confronted one of the police horses..... It was a very magical moment.

 

"I was at the Newbury bypass protests, 10 years ago, filming the evictions on a Hi8 Camcorder. 
Very early one February morning, I found myself in a field with over 500 security guards and police. 
They had surrounded a small copse and a couple of huge, old oak trees, and were preparing to chop them down. 
They had successfully outwitted and outnumbered the protesters.

 


In the chaos accompanying the operation, some hedges and fences had been destroyed and these two horses were roaming virtually free.
 As the chainsaws started, they didnt run away as you'd expect, but towards the felling.
 I just grabbed the camcorder and started filming.
 Nothing was staged, the whole episode only lasted a few minutes, but had quite a profound effect on everyone there. 
Even the police were dumbfounded, especially by the 'confrontation' between the 'wild' horse and the police horse."

 

Mark Carroll 2007