It might not have been as dramatic as the battle of Toad Hall, but a group of frog-lovers have won their own unique quarrel with the mighty Environment Agency - forcing workers to down tools and leave.
The Salthouse Toad Watch is a group of volunteers who rescue toads and frogs from the busy A149 Coast Road between the north Norfolk village and Salthouse marshes.
The group patrols the roadside collecting the amphibians and moving them into a dyke on the other side of the road to safely return to the marshes.
But on Wednesday morning the Environment Agency arrived with diggers and trucks to excavate the dyke - with plans to cut down reeds below the water level all the way from Salthouse pond to Cley.
The works threatened to wipe out thousands of toads, frogs and newts.
But in a remarkable act of defiance, volunteers from the group confronted the workers and managed to persuade the Environment Agency to stop the works - postponing the project.
Colin Horwood, who set up the Salthouse Toad Watch group with his wife Julia four years ago, said the group had recently moved more than 1,400 toads, 250 frogs and 150 newts into the dyke over the last ten days.
"It was panic stations this morning when the Environment Agency turned up with their diggers and trucks," he said.
"It was upsetting to see. The troops in the village here have spent a lot of time rescuing and protecting the toads and frogs because to see them squashed on the road is horrible.
"We’ve done a lot of work to protect them and to give them a chance to breed and then they come along with plans to dig this all out.
"Salthouse is on a hill which comes down to the Coast Road. On the north side of the Coast Road is a dyke which runs all the way along the road through to Cley.
"The toads and frogs come down the hill out of gardens in the village and cross the A149 to get into the dyke.
"We patrol up and down for hours to pick them up and put them into the water so they don’t get squashed.
"It’s a bit of a misnomer to have the Environment Agency destroying the environment.
"I suspect it's a pen pusher in an office somewhere who hasn’t thought of the consequences."
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The Environment Agency has said the works were to reduce the risk of flooding.
Works were supposed to be carried out in January, which it said was not possible because of heavy rainfall.
They will now take place later this year.
An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We carry out routine maintenance of the catchwater watercourse to reduce flood risk.
"That is why an excavator was delivered to the site to clear overgrown vegetation in the watercourse.
"We did not start the works once we were informed of the concerns around the toads, frogs, and newts.
"The Environment Agency carry out maintenance in an environmentally sensitive way and, like everyone, we have an obligation under the law to protect certain species of wildlife.
"We also review the environmental risk before we start any works, and we engage with partner organisations when planning our maintenance programmes.
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"In this specific case, we obtained the necessary agreement from Natural England.
"This work is likely to take place at the end of the year. We were not able to carry out this work in January because we are experiencing a very wet winter, and we prioritise responding to flooding incidents.
"This is going to delay some of our routine maintenance activities.”
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