HOUSEHOLDERS in a normally-quiet village are in shock after police busted a cannabis factory and arrested two people on Friday.

Wiltshire Police executed a search warrant in Lydiard Millicent on Friday, and found that half of the loft area of the property had been converted into a growing room for cannabis plants.

This included high wattage lights, fans, insulation and extractor units to manage the hydroponic system.

A police spokesman said 12 large plants, believed to be cannabis, were seized along with a number of seedlings. The street value at this time is yet to be established.

The house is thought to be in the area of The Street, which is the main road through the village.

A 46-year-old man and a 65-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of the cultivation of cannabis and for the abstraction of electricity. Both have been released on police bail pending further investigation.

Residents in The Street yesterday spoke of their surprise at police uncovering such a crime in what is normally a quiet, respectable village.

A 50-year-old man, who has lived in the village for six years and did not want to be identified, said: “I’m really surprised because this is quite a quiet area.

“We come up and down this road all the time, our kids walk up and down here, and we never suspected that anything like that could be happening in one of the homes.

“I was told about it by some neighbours, but I was not sure it was true. If it is I’m very shocked. What next?”

A grandmother-of-two, who has lived in the area for about eight years and also did not want to be named, said: “I never heard anything at all. It must have been at night or in the early hours of the morning. I don’t know the people that were living there.

“It’s not the sort of thing you expect to happen in a place like Lydiard Millicent. It’s normally quite a peaceful village-type atmosphere, so something like that is shocking. You hear about raids all the time in Swindon and the council estates.

“Twelve plants is quite a large number. My husband heard about it when he was talking to neighbours, and I think we were all very surprised that something of that nature could happen here.”