He said the officers were shouting at him to "drop the knife".

"I said I didn't have a knife and they told me to drop the knife again," he said.

"So I dropped my Japanese hand gardening sickle and a handful of privet that I just cut off the hedge.

"They turned me around, pushed me up against my house, handcuffed me, then put me in the back of a van."

Mr Rowe was carrying a Japanese-made trowel in its sheath, a small Japanese gardener's sickle and a peeling knife, along with a trug of vegetables.

He said the peeling knife was his late grandmother's, the sickle had been purchased a decade ago and the trowel, which has a short blade and wooden handle, was a present.

He added that he had not been aware of any warnings about carrying the tools in public.

However, since his arrest, a warning has appeared on the trowel manufacturer's website.

It said customers needed "to familiarise themselves with offensive weapons law before carrying the tool in public".