King Arthur, a womble and a 77-year-old granny appeared at the High Court as the Crystal Palace eviction hearing descended into farce.

At the hearing last Thursday, Bromley Council won an order to repossess a 12 acre site at Crystal Palace Park occupied by eco-warriors.

But the proceedings took a bizarre twist at the appearance of a home-made wom-ble, number 12 on the list cited to appear, and King Arthur, who proved his identity with his passport.

Also appearing was 77-year old grandmother Joan Yax-ley who visited the eco-village in April to deliver bread and butter pudding to campaigners.

In defiance of the legal defeat more than 700 pro-testers descended on the park for a candlelit vigil in support of the eco-warriors on Saturday.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.