An injunction has been in place banning protesters from the land near Preston since 2014.

The farmer, who was said to be "very upset" about being prevented from getting on with work in the field, proceeded to drive a muck-spreader around the protesters, narrowly missing the Thompson sisters and their cakes.

Emma Thompson said she was staging the so-called "Frack Free Bake Off" in order to "show the government that we will not allow fracking to scar our countryside and fuel yet more climate change".

"What better way to do that, here in Britain, than hold a Bake Off?," she asked.