Earl protests in vain as a thousand ravers invade his country estate

His distant ancestor may have led the charge of the Light Brigade but the present Earl of Cardigan was counting the cost of a lightning takeover of his own territory yesterday after 1,000 ravers staged an illegal three-day party on his land.

The aristocratic estate owner criticised police for failing to remove the revellers when they set up camp with five sound systems in Savernake Forest, a protected reserve near Marlborough, Wiltshire, the largest privately owned woodland in Britain.

As the last of the partygoers left the five-acre party area last night – they had been there since Friday evening – Lord Cardigan said the event was likely to have caused extensive damage to wildlife at the scene, part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

The 50-year-old earl claimed that he and his wife had been threatened with being run over when they tried to stop a column of coaches, cars and lorries entering the forest.

Wiltshire police surrounded the area to stop more people entering the site, where organisers had set up stages for an impromptu dance music festival that locals said could be heard four miles away.

Lord Cardigan said he was disappointed that nothing had been done to stop the revellers, who had travelled from across the country after the rave was advertised via a coded website.

He said: "At the end of the day, Parliament has given the police powers to deal with these situations, for example by confiscating the sound systems and removing their reason for being here.

"But the police chose not exercise those powers, which rather begs the question of what they are there for in the first place. I and my wife have been offered violence and the damage to wildlife is likely to be significant."

The Eton-educated earl, named David Brundenell-Bruce, had attempted to cut off access to the arboretum where the rave was held by laying tree trunks across access roads. But the giant logs were towed out of the way or revellers parked their cars on the verges of the nearby A4 and walked to the party site.

About 1,000 people were in the forest on Friday night, falling to 800 on Saturday and fewer than 200 by yesterday morning. As part of an attempt to persuade the revellers to leave, the earl printed leaflets – on the advice of police – requesting the group to move on because of the damage being caused to the forest, home to rare lichen and funghi as well as animals including deer, nightingales and two red kites.

The 4,500-acre estate has been held by the earl's family since 1067. It was a distant relative, James Earl of Cardigan, who led the fatal cavalry charge during the Crimean War in 1854 and died childless, leaving his title to the owners of Savernake.

The leaflet, handed out by Lord Cardigan while accompanied by two plain-clothed police officers, said: "The forest is clearly being harmed by this invasion by wheeled vehicles and the number of people present. We hope you share our concerns and we therefore ask that you move from here today, thereby eliminating the risk to the forest."

Wiltshire police defended its handling of the rave, saying its total force of 1,400 officers meant it would not have had enough personnel to evict the partygoers it forcibly.

Inspector Rod Stacy-Marks said: "A full-scale charge into the dark against 800 people would have been very difficult to control and probably pointless. The staff we deployed worked long and hard. Lord Cardigan definitely has my sympathy, but we minimised the problem. This was a well-organised event."

Police said there had been one arrest for a drug offence over the weekend. There is understood to be a separate inquiry to track down the organisers of the event, who had planned it on the internet.

Managers of Savernake Forest said they expected the area that was used to be closed off for some time while a clear-up was completed and damage to the area was assessed.

Last February, the Earl won an out-of-court settlement against a tenant who left him prostrate on the ground after a dispute on his own land. An altercation followed after Lord Cardigan stopped Raymond Hudson, 75, from accessing his estate because of restrictions introduced to prevent the spread of foot and mouth disease. He accepted £650 from Mr Hudson before a hearing at Swindon County Court.