Smithy Fen is another stronghold of Crays Hill's Irish Sheridan clan and the UK's second biggest illegal traveller site.

Despite its 50 legal and 58 illegal plots, many of the pitches owned by the clan there are deserted. South Cambridgeshire Council maps show 25 long-term empty plots.

A count last July found just 21 caravans, and aerial pictures taken last January reveal scores of empty pitches.

Many owners were working in France and Spain - the same destination for many Dale Farm occupants last summer.

The coincidence fuels local residents' beliefs some are the same people with multiple addresses.

Dale Farm and Smithy Fen share remarkable similarities.

* They were English traveller sites, taken over systematically by Irish newcomers

* Both illegally doubled in size over well-organised weekends, with thousands of tonnes of hardcore laid for mobile homes, leaving councils unable to act

* They are centres for HGV deliveries of suspect Polish furniture - main trade of the Sheridan clan

* Villagers at both sites complain of blaring car horns, raw sewage entering ditches, fires, intimidation, land grabs, dangerous driving and flytipping

* Villagers also tell of the wealth of the Sheridan clan, many of whom receive benefits, with new 4x4s and Bentleys, smart homes and men with bundles of cash

* They share the same close community and mistrust of outsiders

* The Sheridan clan bought around 40 legal plots at Crays Hill from 2001. By 2002, Dale Farm was being developed with 52 more illegal pitches. In 2003 a similar pattern followed at Smithy Fen, with the 50-plot legal site increased by 58 illegal plots.