People of Pishill fear loss of 800-year-old community asset as they await council decision on ‘mixed-use’ scheme

On a crisp October day in rural Oxfordshire, sunlight streams through the autumn leaves along a winding country lane. A stubby Jeep rumbles past laden with freshly shot pheasant, and a red kite circles overhead.

It is an idyllic, quintessentially English scene, but rake the surface and the embers of a fierce local row soon spark into life. On one side, people determined not to lose an 800-year-old pub; on the other, a magic amulet-toting, born-again Christian broadcasting “alt-right” views to the world from its environs.