The story of these home-owner holdouts reminds me of the infamous house that sits in the middle of the M62, the motorway that crosses the Penines between Manchester and Leeds. At Stott Hall Farm, in Calderdale, the 3-lane east bound carriageway and 3-west bound carriageway split, each to take a different way around the farm. The story goes that the farmer refused to sell up, so the developers built the motorway around him.
However, according to the Wikipedia entry on the M62, this is an urban myth - the road splits due to the contours of the ground. But the coincidence seems too great, and besides, it's a much better story.
More on Stot Hall Farm here and there's a shockingly bad quality video of a BBC news story here.
Previously: