A farmer who built a £1 million castle on his own land and "cheekily" concealed it from view has been forced to demolish it amid a planning row.
Robert Fidler was forced to knock down the mock-Tudor mansion after losing a hard-fought legal battle in 2015.
The 73-year-old says his initial planning application for the property was completely ignored, and so chose to erect the castle himself, reports the Mirror.
In a bid to keep the building out of sight, over a four year period, the pensioner kept it hidden under a huge tarpaulin, a stack of tyres and a pile of hay bales.
He confessed being "cheeky" about the process of constructing the building, and hoped that a loophole might protect it.
Mr Fidler told The Sun : "I had applied for planning permission in 1998 and in 2005 when they asked me to demolish the building, they still hadn’t answered my planning application, seven years later.
“Their own legislation says they are supposed to reply to me within eight weeks and they did not do it within eight years.”
The four bedroom castle, which had its own battlements and old-looking cannons took two years and hundreds of trees to build.
He had hoped a loophole could be employed to circumvent planning rules which state that if it had been up for four years without permission it could stay up.
Mr Fidler admits it was "cheeky" because it hidden from view.
But he says the law does not say anything about it being concealed.
Council chiefs from Reigate and Bansted Borough Council ordered him to take the building at Honeycrock Farm, Salfords.
He still lives in a converted office on the farm with 52-year-old wife Linda and 21-year-old son Harry.
The castle even has a glass dome on the roof which came from Brighton Pier.
Materials on the castle were reused on the front door which has inscribed beams.
The family lived in the building for 15 years until it had to be demolished.
But now just the fireplace remains and some gating, are left along with other materials and a gazebo for family events.
He tried to appeal the demolition demand and took the case to the High Court.
The property was finally ordered to be demolished even though bats remained in the loft.
His battle to keep the building resulted in him being given three-month suspended sentence and warned he would be jailed if it was not taken down by June 2015.
But it also made the family known world wide and prompted interviews with overseas TV stations.
The Mirror told how he was forced to demolish it in March 2016 hid it behind hay bales for seven years has began demolishing the property to avoid jail.
Robert Fidler built the four-bedroom, turreted property without planning permission back in 2000.
For four years, he concealed the huge construction behind bales of hay.
But it was discovered in 2007 and Reigate and Banstead Borough Council told him to demolish the property in the village of Salfords, Surrey - which he called Honeycrock Farm.
He appealed the case for almost nine years, but was pictured on the roof of the property preparing to take it down.
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