Hidden Castle

[Quixotic]

Saw this on another forum:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080125/od_ ... ain_castle

LONDON (Reuters) - A farmer built an entire mock castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations, officials said on Friday -- but it may be torn down anyway.
ADVERTISEMENT

Robert Fidler hopes to take advantage of a provision of planning law that allows buildings without planning permission to be declared legal if no objections have been made after four years

But Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in Surrey is not impressed.

"It does not count because the property was hidden behind hay bales," said a spokeswoman. "No one knew it was there."

The council wants the building near Redhill some 30 km south of London to be demolished, along with an associated conservatory, marquee structure, wooden bridge, patio, decking and tarmac racecourse.

"It looks like a mock-Tudor house from the front and it's got two turrets at the back," the spokeswoman said. "I understand there is also a cannon."

The couple would have been unlikely to get planning permission as the farm was in "green belt" land where building was restricted, she said. A hearing takes place in February.

Fidler's wife Linda told the Daily Mail newspaper the children grew up looking at straw out of the windows of the house and that they kept their son away from playschool on the day his class were due to do paintings of their houses.

"We couldn't have him drawing a big blue haystack," she said. "People might ask questions."

Planning inspectors had been called to the site by concerned neighbours shortly before Fidler took the hay bales down in summer 2006 but had not seen the house.

"When the inspectors went there, all they saw was hay bales and hay bales on agricultural land are not that unusual," the spokeswoman said.

"I think the neighbours thought there might be something going on but it is difficult to tell, isn't it?"

Annnd pics!

All hidden:
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/200...rs_468x284.jpg

The castle revealed:
http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/200...s1_468x255.jpg

[Noobta]

Wow....that's awesome lol.

[Tyche]

Wtf, the citizens weren't concerned to see 50ft of nasty ass hay bales stacked gleefully in their neighborhood, but when they see a sweet fucking castle, "Holy shit, call the building inspector!"

lol @ "I understand there is also a canon..."

[Lordwafik]

holy crap that's amazing, I wouldn't tear it down, I'd make it a tourist attraction.

[Hige]

This reminded me of Adverse Possession, in which you can gain the title to another person's land if you live there for a number of years (varies by state). However, the catch is that you have to live there openly as a visible presence, not hidden. If the planning law mentioned in the article has similar provisions regarding visibility (which it seems to), I don't see them winning.

[isladar]

How could they lose? THEY HAVE A CANNON.

[evilbau]

while the castle itself is pretty cool, this is a pretty dumb plan. I wouldn't drop the cash to build a castle hoping that 'if its hidden for 4 years, they will let it stand'. Well, maybe if I had enough money to not care if they tore it down. But trying to sneak it by them like this creates a lot of bad will and you know they will bend the rules to punish you, just to spite you, which is what happened here.

Common sense to me but maybe i've read too many stories of people trying to pull a fast one on the IRS and others trying to run out the statute of limitations on collections.

[Khamsin]

while the castle itself is pretty cool, this is a pretty dumb plan. I wouldn't drop the cash to build a castle hoping that 'if its hidden for 4 years, they will let it stand'. Well, maybe if I had enough money to not care if they tore it down. But trying to sneak it by them like this creates a lot of bad will and you know they will bend the rules to punish you, just to spite you, which is what happened here.

Common sense to me but maybe i've read too many stories of people trying to pull a fast one on the IRS and others trying to run out the statute of limitations on collections.

I wonder how he built it without anyone noticing. Did he personally take each stone in under his jacket, one by one, once a day so as not to arouse suspicion for a few years? Did he do the earthwork with a spoon, because a backhoe would have been too conspicuous?

[Metah]

while the castle itself is pretty cool, this is a pretty dumb plan. I wouldn't drop the cash to build a castle hoping that 'if its hidden for 4 years, they will let it stand'. Well, maybe if I had enough money to not care if they tore it down. But trying to sneak it by them like this creates a lot of bad will and you know they will bend the rules to punish you, just to spite you, which is what happened here.

Common sense to me but maybe i've read too many stories of people trying to pull a fast one on the IRS and others trying to run out the statute of limitations on collections.

I wonder how he built it without anyone noticing. Did he personally take each stone in under his jacket, one by one, once a day so as not to arouse suspicion for a few years? Did he do the earthwork with a spoon, because a backhoe would have been too conspicuous?

Maybe all his neighbours are blind and the first person to notice was one of the neighbour's not blind neice's who came to visit?

[evilbau]

'Hay guys! I just like collecting hayyyyyyyy'

[Mizango]

Wow.

[Tyche]

How the fuck do they do utilities there?

"That there stack of hay bales sure is using an awful lot of water and electricity..."

[fantasticdan]

LONDON (Reuters) - A farmer built an entire mock castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations, officials said on Friday -- but it may be torn down anyway.

What planning regulations? Would he not be allowed to build something that looks like a castle otherwise?

[Tythera]

LONDON (Reuters) - A farmer built an entire mock castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations, officials said on Friday -- but it may be torn down anyway.

What planning regulations? Would he not be allowed to build something that looks like a castle otherwise?

The couple would have been unlikely to get planning permission as the farm was in "green belt" land where building was restricted, she said.

I guess they didn't want new buildings in that area at all or something, which makes me wonder how they allowed the hay bails and shit >.>

[Khamsin]

LONDON (Reuters) - A farmer built an entire mock castle behind a screen of hay bales and lived there concealed for four years to evade planning regulations, officials said on Friday -- but it may be torn down anyway.

What planning regulations? Would he not be allowed to build something that looks like a castle otherwise?

[quote:k8lec9t2]The couple would have been unlikely to get planning permission as the farm was in "green belt" land where building was restricted, she said.

I guess they didn't want new buildings in that area at all or something, which makes me wonder how they allowed the hay bails and shit >.>[/quote:k8lec9t2]
Because hay bales aren't buildings. They could even be considered "green".

[Ishido]

That's pretty awesome.

Would suck to live for 4 years under hay bales though (despite being inside a house... I mean no natural light?).

[Khamsin]

That's pretty awesome.

Would suck to live for 4 years under hay bales though (despite being inside a house... I mean no natural light?).

I thought they were just using a wall of hay bales to obstruct it from view, but once past the wall seen in the first picture, you'd see the second picture (with hay bale wall still intact behind you).

Did they actually cover the entire place, courtyard and all, with tarp and hay?

[guartz]

Wtf, the citizens weren't concerned to see 50ft of nasty ass hay bales stacked gleefully in their neighborhood, but when they see a sweet fucking castle, "Holy shit, call the building inspector!"

lol @ "I understand there is also a canon..."

I think the point of green belt is to restrict people from building crap on wild land to preserve the view and shit. Which makes your point even more valid. Srsly WTF?

[Tobatobu]

while the castle itself is pretty cool, this is a pretty dumb plan. I wouldn't drop the cash to build a castle hoping that 'if its hidden for 4 years, they will let it stand'. Well, maybe if I had enough money to not care if they tore it down. But trying to sneak it by them like this creates a lot of bad will and you know they will bend the rules to punish you, just to spite you, which is what happened here.

Common sense to me but maybe i've read too many stories of people trying to pull a fast one on the IRS and others trying to run out the statute of limitations on collections.

I wonder how he built it without anyone noticing. Did he personally take each stone in under his jacket, one by one, once a day so as not to arouse suspicion for a few years? Did he do the earthwork with a spoon, because a backhoe would have been too conspicuous?

Speedhack.