IT may be a fairytale castle for one Herefordshire family but their dream of mock medieval decadence in the Golden Valley is a horror story for a local author.
Walterstone writer Rebecca Smith has described the proposed plans for Monnow Court, a mock moated medieval manor house with Jacobean, Tudor, Elizabethan and Victorian additions, as a 'stupid monstrous idea'.
"We thought it was an April fool when we saw it in the paper. It is totally out of keeping and the pseudoness of it is offensive. We as a community feel we do not need enhancing," she said.
The proposed multi-million pound home is the fantasy pad of Deborah and Eddie Gittoes, owners of the successful Arctic Circle refrigeration company on the Rotherwas Industrial Estate in Hereford.
They have pledged to fight their application to build the first court if its kind in the county for 600 years, all the way to the Secretary of State.
The first rumbles of discontent in the Golden Valley were heard at a meeting of Walterstone Parish Council on Monday night.
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