Shropshire farmer left with hefty bill after arson attack

Roy Marsh, 47, who lives with wife Nikki on their farm in Crosemere Court, Cockshutt near Ellesmere, spotted smoke while driving

He said: "I had taken the tractor past the hay bales that morning and they were fine.

"But at about 4.15pm I saw smoke coming from my field so I went straight there and I could see all the hay bales were on fire so we called the fire brigade.

"The bales were stacked near my neighbour's hawthorn hedge and we were worried the heat would take the hedge out."

Firefighters arrived and Mr Marsh was forced to drag the hay bales out with his tractor and let them burn out.

He said: "The firefighters said it is like putting out a thatched roof – they can put water over it and it will extinguish the fire on the top but it will still burn underneath.

"Instead we had to let all the hay bales just burn out. It was very upsetting, but you have to just bite your lip and get on with it."

Mr Marsh said he was pleased no livestock were hurt during the blaze and he had started to slowly replace his stock.

He said: "I am buying them now at £50 a tonne and we had about 25 tonnes. We can't replace them all at once, and we don't want to put them all back in in case someonesets them on fire again."

Mr Marsh said he believed the only possibility was that the fire had deliberately been started and he urged anyone with information to contact the police.

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has said the cause of the fire is under investigation and police have asked anyone who saw anything suspicious to contact 101 quoting incident 431s of March 15.