Max Hunt - Telegraph Eventually the fight was called off when engineers decided it was possible to divide the east- and west-bound carriageways and leave the farm intact, allowing Wilde to continue to keep his 1,400 sheep on more than 2,000 acres on the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. Two 12ft-wide tunnels were built underneath the motorway, allowing Wilde and his dogs to check on his flock. "It felt like a strange arrangement at first," said Wilde. But I've got used to it over the years. Really, it's like living on an island. The house is on this strip of grass which is only 100ft wide at its narrowest point. On each side of us are three lanes of motorway traffic, travelling at 70mph. In his dealings with Wilde, Hunt drew on the inner reserves of tact, charm and humour that had served him well in negotiations with other determined, not to say awkward, Yorkshire farmers over the years. Having decided to live with the noise and the pollution, Wilde accepted free triple-glazing from the council and Hunt concluded his dealings with him. After working for the Wakefield Building Society, he moved to a job with the local valuation office. In 1941, aged 19, he was turned down for the RAF when he was found to be colour-blind. With two friends he joined the Royal Artillery but, once commissioned, opted to join an Indian regiment because he thought he looked too young, despite having grown a moustache, to command battle-hardened British troops who had fought in the Arakan campaign. Having learned Urdu, Hunt served in Burma before being repatriated to England in the rank of captain. On rejoining the valuation office, he was assigned to Doncaster, Pontefract and finally Huddersfield. It was there, in 1968, that he began dealing with the acquisition of land for the new M62 motorway, which was opened by the Queen in 1971. Promoted to assistant district valuer in Bradford, Hunt later worked with the superintendent valuer in Leeds before being made district valuer in Wakefield. He retired in 1984. Maxwell Hunt married, in 1968, Maureen Wilkinson, who survives him with their two sons. Ken Wilde died in 2004, but Stott Hall Farm now has a new tenant. Max Hunt, born June 27 1922, died December 3 2012