Fencing causes 'irreversible damage' at estate

A councillor who owns a 15th Century moated castle has fallen foul of his own authority for causing "irreversible damage" to the walls that surround it.

Thomas Barclay had fencing erected, with bolts put into the bricks, to stop people peering over a boundary wall to photograph Middleton Castle in Norfolk, a meeting at the Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk heard.

The Conservative, who hires out the castle for Traitors-style experiences, applied for retrospective planning permission but councillors refused it.

Planning officers said the fence was "not an appropriate form of boundary treatment" for a building of national importance. Middleton Castle has been approached for comment.

Planners found screws drilled into the historic bricks had caused "irreversible damage" to the structure.

Middleton Castle, also known as Middleton Towers, is Grade I-listed and dates from about 1455, when work began on the gatehouse by Hundred Years War commander Thomas Scales.

The manor has been in Barclay's family since the 1960s and opened for weddings, corporate events and guest stays when it fell to his ownership in 2023.

Its website offers a "Traitors Experience" and says the castle is the "perfect backdrop for deception, strategy and suspense".

One letter in support of the fencing, from a relative of Barclay, said guests needed privacy because people regularly stopped to photograph the castle.

Tom de Winton, a fellow Conservative councillor, acknowledged the concerns.

"It's not a cheap place to rent and some people going there are probably minor celebrities," he said.

"The higher up the food chain you go, privacy is more of an issue."

However, the majority of councillors were more scathing of the application, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"It really looks unpleasant and inappropriate," said councillor Jim Moriarty, of the Independent Partnership.

"The only reason we have this application before us is because he is a councillor, and had he not been this would have already been turned down."

Barclay, who previously spent years working as a foreign exchange trader in London, was not present at the meeting to speak in defence of the application.

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