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The Wild Horses of Newbury

During the infamous anti road protests at Newbury, England in the mid 1990s,
Mark Carroll made a short film called ;

'The Wild Horses of Newbury'

It 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.

The film was included in 'Undercurrents 6' the alternative news video, it then made it onto 'Channel 4' and has since been broadcast all around the world. It was recently voted 'favourite undercurrents film' by viewers.
It was watched by over 300,000 during the 'Supershorts 2006' online film festival.
Click here to see comments left about the film during the 'Supershorts 2005' film festival.

The Wild Horses of Newbury can be watched at higher quality
on the Channel Four Website Here

The quality of the film on the channel four website is better than here, but you'll need a fast internet connection.

You can email the filmaker, Mark Carroll at this address;

The Horses film is included on the Undercurrents DVD, which is for sale via their website. Undercurrents email them and ask for a copy.

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.