- 2 months ago
GrandDesigns S27E05 Stratford-upon-Avon 2025
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00:00It's been some time since anybody built a castle, but of course in their time there
00:12were incredibly important structures. They were military. They protected and
00:19defended. They were the place where the village would run when under attack.
00:24They were also, of course, to show off. They were homes designed to impress, even to
00:31entertain royalty. The thing is, of course, they did cost a king's ransom to build, so
00:39you'd have to be out of your mind to want to build something like this these days.
00:54Once upon a time, on a hilltop in Warwickshire stood, at first glance, a shiny castle.
01:19It was bought by an entrepreneur, Piers and Emma, a police officer.
01:28Look how white it is today. It's really, really clean.
01:32I know. It looks brand new.
01:34It does, yeah.
01:36After forking out 1.4 million for it, they plan to lovingly and carefully...
01:42Tear it down.
01:43It's a horrible looking building, and it's Pebble Dash.
01:48However, the local villagers have their pitchforks out.
01:52Absolutely aghast. I can't believe that they would be demolishing such a lovely building.
01:57I'm devastated. Whatever comes in its place is going to be a hard task to follow.
02:04But, lo! Piers and Emma aren't necessarily the villains here. Long, long ago, this 17th century farmstead was given a theatrical makeover with turrets.
02:16Years passed, and the crumbling folly was remodelled with an arts and crafts wing.
02:21It's just a mishmash of nothing, unfortunately, now, isn't it?
02:24Not if you like arts and crafts.
02:26It's a shame.
02:27The abandoned dishevelled folly was sold to a developer who was planning 14 hilltop homes here.
02:33One of these, a barn, was bought by Piers and Emma four years ago.
02:38It's also home to Florence and Edie.
02:41I fell in love in this house as soon as I came up the drive, and I didn't envisage us ever moving again.
02:49But, very quickly, everything started to unravel.
02:52Instead of replacing the folly castle with five homes as planned, the developer put it up for sale.
02:58That, for us, was really difficult because, potentially, somebody could build 60 homes. There's big fields around.
03:06And then I found all the legal issues where we didn't actually have a right to water, sewage, internet.
03:12It could make our house worth nothing.
03:14So, they bought the castle along with the service deeds.
03:18They want to replace it with a befitting landmark.
03:21I try not to tell people what we're doing, because it sounds very grand and eccentric.
03:27I think people will think I'm a bit of a dick.
03:29So, they won't take me very seriously.
03:32Wow.
03:33What a take that is.
03:34What a riff.
03:35It's a 1920s castle.
03:36What's wrong with that?
03:37Look, some very nice 1920s panelling disappearing out of the building.
03:41Wow.
03:42Huh.
03:43This is something else.
03:44Everything possible is being salvaged here.
03:46And while some areas are mighty fine, there are others that are decrepit.
03:49This place is damp, cold, miserable.
03:54Very much out-of-date.
03:55Very much out-of-date.
03:56Very much out-of-date.
03:57But that's not an excuse to tear this piece of history down.
03:58This place is damp.
03:59Cold, miserable.
04:00Very much out-of-date.
04:01But that's not an excuse to tear this piece of history down.
04:02This place is damp.
04:03Cold, miserable.
04:04Very much out-of-date.
04:07Good night.
04:08How do you feel?
04:09All day?
04:10No.
04:11I'm no longer going to be.
04:12It's not a place where a town's higgy is being salvaged here.
04:15And while some areas are mighty fine, there are others that are decrepit.
04:20This place is damp.
04:21Cold.
04:22Miserable.
04:23Very much out-of-date.
04:24But that's not an excuse to tear this piece of history down.
04:28Hello.
04:29Hi.
04:30Amazing house you have.
04:31I'm really torn.
04:34Because I'm a building conservationist and I can see here there are bits of this building which are just very low-grade
04:40Yeah, and then there are bits which are very high quality
04:42Well, I've been having conversations with people on and off for a year and a half to see how much we could salvage
04:47Anything we can reuse we will reuse. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me what are you gonna build we are gonna build a
04:54Modern take on a castle which will be a family home
04:58So you are knocking down a fake castle to build a fake castle
05:04No, it's a 21st century castle for us. It is really trying to reimagine what what a castle
05:10Could be and actually build something that's not a folly anymore
05:13That's actually was designed from the ground up to have that structure in that shape
05:17And it will have a tower to replicate what people see every day and we have a nod to the turrets and to emote a
05:2421st century castle. Yeah. Wow
05:29This two-year project could be the first listed castle in a century
05:34The old folly will make way for a very big dig
05:38Hollowing out this hillside at different levels to install a maze of footings for a 30 meter long structure and a very large basement under the tower
05:48They'll build using insulated woodcrete blocks made from recycled shredded timber mixed with cement
05:54That'll be filled with reinforced concrete
05:57An extraordinary
06:0025,000 blocks will be needed to build from ground floor to the first floor bedroom wing to the five floors of the tower to be topped with a castellated roof terrace a
06:12mighty stone facade will encase the walls
06:15Counted here and there by vertical timber cladding
06:18There'll be stone mullions and lintels recessed windows and arrow slit openings
06:23So quite a few castle accoutrements
06:27Including a long barbican entrance with a beamed open roof of rectangular murder holes
06:35Lovely
06:36The great front door will lead to a double-height hallway to impress royalty
06:41Flanked by a glazed stone colonnade and a moat on one side and an inner courtyard with a pond on the other
06:47There'll be a basement pool a very large garage utility rooms an outdoor kitchen in the lodger and a two-bedroom apartment
06:58The first floor will be for sleeping where the children's wing and a main bedroom in the tower
07:05The second floor will contain the kitchen diner the third the living room and the fourth will be the roof terrace
07:11So eight bedrooms a total floor space of nearly 1,100 square meters. Oh and a separate lakeside office
07:19It'll be the biggest self-build I've ever seen maybe fit for a king
07:26I didn't appreciate how big it's going to be for me
07:29We're building the architect's picture and that is what we've sold to our community and that's what I think will look right here
07:36Okay, if we go up we can you'll be actually be able to see it's bonkers
07:39What's more peers endeavor are taking on another building that the developer left?
07:44We're going to use it as a test site because it will be ahead of the castle
07:49Well, surely they're going to need a fortune for all this
07:53What in your head then have you priced it at about 200 pounds a square foot so across
07:5811,000 square feet that's nearly two million pounds that came to 2.2 million not two million maybe closer. Yeah
08:04What happens if it goes, you know if it goes over?
08:06Those are sleepless nights type conversations. Where's the money come from? I sold the business and
08:12We've got some mortgages. We have some properties and
08:16This will be sold. Are you not torn? Oh completely torn, but we wouldn't be able to
08:21Do the build without selling here. I'm addicted to risk and I think Emma has bought into that now
08:28It will be largely up to peers though to juggle this risky venture alongside his five start-up businesses
08:39One of which in London is a tech company
08:42Piers began a business at 15
08:45He won young entrepreneur of the year at 31 and then sold a company for an undisclosed sum
08:52So down here we have the geek room where we have everything that we need to make in a prototyping stage
08:59We're making a light switch and a plug socket you can replace into any home
09:04So if you needed a normal power socket you'd plug that in but likewise you could also just have it straight to a USB connector
09:11We've got rid of job titles we've got coding cosmonauts. We've got an imagineer
09:21So I am actually just a dreamer
09:26Seems about right Piers making a profit here remains a pipe dream
09:30So my view on money is that money is like energy building the castle or developing this business
09:35I'm actually making an impact and and long term that would be my legacy. It won't be having a load of money in the bank account
09:44A surfeit of cash isn't a problem Piers will likely be facing
09:49Two months in the project is already in peril
09:57The old place should have been demolished by now, but there's been a dangerous discovery
10:02It's full of asbestos
10:06So it does look like a space landing at the moment. There's people in hazmat suits and sealed rooms and it looks like a big operation
10:15It's probably about a hundred thousand pounds the cost there that we just haven't foreseen. I
10:21Just want the building down. I feel like it's just a weight around my neck
10:25The burdensome folly takes another month before it's deemed safe. Then at last digger day
10:36Today is amazing because I feel as though we're actually doing something proactive
10:42So it's a good day
10:44It'll take three days to raise this to the ground, but Piers is working in London missing the spectacle
10:54So daddy would be excited to see this and hey
11:03The destruction is breathtaking and the carving up of the site just as brutal
11:09After 10 weeks, there's a new peak in Warwickshire
11:16I built that hill the local workforce is 10 to 15 strong. That's a staggering 10 grand a week minimum
11:24Our bills each month already in eye-wateringly large figures. We're talking sort of
11:3150 and a hundred thousand pounds each month, but at the end of the day
11:34We have to see it through to the end. Well, we'll manage we'll cope it will be good
11:51Piers and Emma have dug for foundations in readiness to crown this hill with a 21st century castle
11:58There's seven months into a two-year schedule
12:01We're gonna go down another meter from where we are now
12:04From here go to grief. There's a castle sized hole, but not much else
12:10It's not quite going to plan
12:13Yeah, how far behind are you about 20,000 tonne of soil behind one day?
12:19We had 17 machines here and it's still behind everything's just taken a lot longer than we were expecting total cost about 180
12:28It's a lot to take down a building. Where does that money come from?
12:32Everything you see we've we've paid for in cash literally, but we're just now talking a bit more with the bank. Yeah
12:38Piers and Emma are also hoping to contain their budget by building with these blocks made from recycled wood fiber and cement
12:46They're trialing them on the test building next door
12:49When you think about a castle it used to be meter thick stone walls
12:52And so actually this is as close as we can get to something but actually give us some thermal mass and you pull concrete
12:58In the middle once it gets to about two meters, but it comes with insulation already installed in it
13:03Yeah, it's very straightforward. They're cheaper. Yeah, that's our hope. Yes
13:09Using simple stackable blocks seems like a clever idea
13:13But just a few days after my visit that battle tactic falls foul of events
13:18The woodcrete block supplier has gone into administration
13:23All our plans are layout everything was all measured to the size of these blocks
13:27So if we're changing that then the hundreds of thousands of pounds I spent on planning process reports
13:34All of that is potentially wasted
13:37Piers is talking to a new block supplier in the hope that their product is similarly sized
13:43Piers does however have enough blocks on site for the test house
13:50Two months later the ground floor is up
13:53But next door at the castle, they're only on their first big concrete pool
13:58With one of the uk's biggest pumps
14:03It's a big day to put a newbie in charge, but piers has been unhappy with the progress so that's what he's done
14:09This is matt his new site manager promoted from within the ranks
14:17Never built a house before only ever put in the foundations and move on
14:22I've never seen a cv or anything. I think he's trained as a tiler originally, but I don't know what matt did before
14:27He built stuff
14:29I've moved from a ground worker right up to project manager in a weekend. It's crazy, isn't it?
14:35I will always go my gut instinct, and I think I think he's got the right attitude for this project
14:43I hope so because this basement needs 15 lorry loads of concrete
14:49How much are you carrying?
14:51Six
14:51Found
14:52This is my biggest pool. It's really daunting
14:56Okay, sound
14:57There's a lot to take on and I just hope it's going to go well
15:02Panic in for no reason
15:0590 cubic meters of concrete are being pumped into wooden shuttering that matt has signed off now. I'm gonna get nervy
15:13You're looking at a meter and a half deep of concrete leaning on against it
15:18Just making sure it doesn't pale
15:21That's always my worry. No matter how much you do you've always got a chance in here
15:26After the fifth lorry matt is feeling more confident so it's going well really well the worst bits over
15:34None of the timber work has moved
15:3690 cubic meters wow
15:38So I think we said for the whole build is about 300 cubic meters
15:41No way more. Okay, so hs2 is not getting any concrete today. No, we've put that on hold
15:50Matt got off to a good start but three months later
15:53They're behind again thanks to the weather and the difficulty of getting hold of more woodcreek blocks
15:59Their new supplier is in europe
16:01We expected them to arrive just a week after order from italy but actually because they were stuck in customs
16:07It ended up being 12 week weight
16:10They're going to need 25 000 of these blocks costing nearly 200 000 pounds
16:16They're actually cheaper than the uk blocks and so similar that a redesign isn't an issue
16:23But getting the stock is challenging
16:25I'm about to run out with no more to come then we're paying for people to stand around
16:31It's not good
16:33These walls are just for the tower basement
16:36The rest of the castle stretches out 30 meters at ground level
16:40It'll sit on this maze of trench foundations
16:43Which will need another 22 lorry loads of concrete
16:4920 a bit
16:51Don't knock that bank in
16:52But on this exposed wet hill the trenches are crumbling and then the rain starts
17:01You're on it there
17:05These collapses can compromise the strength of these footings horrible horrible weather
17:15Every time it caves in we have to get in there and dig it back out
17:19It's not good
17:22All these cavings all these little bit
17:27Adds up
17:28Worst case scenario is your foundation trenches that is sort of doubled in size
17:33Which means it just costs twice as much more in concrete to fill it
17:38Over eight hours the collapses add up to two extra lorries and six and a half thousand pounds of costs
17:45Today's just been really wet really muddy and just really shit
17:53Inevitably costs go north they've spent 1.1 million on groundworks twice what was forecast
18:01Covid rising material costs and complexity are to blame
18:0618 months in the test house is a successful shell
18:10But the castle is not
18:16Good grief is i didn't quite appreciate the
18:20The sense of it being this huge civil engineering project
18:24Yeah, and and what you didn't get to see was actually the two meters of concrete that sits below this
18:29And the amount of steel that's gone in how have you coped with the that kind of roller coaster nature of it all
18:35I think it's a lack of understanding about what's happening next
18:39And so actually most of it's a surprise
18:42I love your understanding
18:43It looked fine on paper
18:45I am transfixed by peers. He's a million over his 2.2 million budget
18:51I'd be ruined but he's in his happy place. I'm like a dog with a bone. I'll finish it
18:57I'll spend the rest of my life paying for it. Yeah
19:01Piers may think he can borrow his way out of trouble
19:05But the banks reject his mortgage application
19:08Instead he has to sell the london flat he uses for work
19:11If you're thinking about the castle, I mean it's 200 grand a month
19:17It's massive
19:19I wouldn't be able to pay the builders without this
19:22Selling this month, so it's very lucky. It's all happening at the same time
19:28Even so peers is still financially short so he goes to the bank of mum
19:36For a six-figure sum
19:38Thank you
19:40Sweetie listen
19:41Not to put too fine a point on it, you know i've given you my pension fund
19:47When do you think you'll sort of think about returning that?
19:51Hopefully finish the build next year then mortgage the house and then i'll settle with you
19:56Including the interest we've agreed to pay
19:58I think any parent would do anything for their kid, but it's um
20:01Obviously asking them to sort of gamble their future on a project i'm doing which i don't really need to do
20:09Is quite a big ask
20:11But then trisha has invested in Piers before and made a healthy profit
20:15I don't feel as though it's something that i'm i'm really um
20:20Risking risking yes, but then i worry that you might just be overdoing it lots of vitamins
20:27Yes
20:31I would say he's more
20:34Vulnerable at the moment than he's ever been in his life
20:37I sometimes worry that he's going to actually cause himself health issues because
20:43How much pressure can one person take?
20:48Heavy lies the crown for Piers
20:51But then given the scale of the project maybe this was inevitable
20:55The idea is nuts
20:58The project is complex it's on top of a hill difficult to get to goodness me why pursue such a folly of an idea
21:08This is warwick castle not far from the site a suitable location to meet john boardman the architect behind
21:16Piers and emma's 21st century castle
21:19I hoped he might shed light as to why its design needed to be so big and complex
21:24We really did have to make a statement for a community they've been used to this eye-catching monument this house on the hill
21:31And to take that away is a huge thing yeah, so that was the brief from the planners
21:36And the clients was to eliminate every disney element
21:40So we've taken all the clues from everything you see here
21:43Your prototypes for example through quite a celebrated beam entrance here
21:48The indents of the roof parapet which is obviously mirroring the crenellations that you can see in and around the castle
21:53And all the recesses where the arrow slots are we've sort of mirrored that we've been playful with the design
21:59It strikes me also one thing you've done here is you've tried to shape the building to fit the contours so it's steps
22:05Absolutely
22:05Makes it more complex to build but it does so in a way that a castle like this does
22:10The design seems absolutely appropriate for the site taught and lean
22:14The simple facts are it can't be compromised only constraints exactly conditions surrounding it
22:20Absolutely piers is fully aware of that and I hope obviously if anybody can deliver this
22:26piers can well it's piers yeah absolutely
22:28there
22:37Castle construction continues on a cycle flocks go up voids are filled with concrete and it's all repeated for 12 months
22:47it's super slow because Piers has prioritized finishing his test house
22:52next door two years in and he can sell it which he does for two and a half
22:57million quid it was a relief selling it yes yeah it was good and and also I
23:03think we've got good neighbors it's a big chunk of cash which I can start to
23:07repurpose into this site two and a half million is useful cash but including the
23:13land Piers spent three million on the test house so he's made a five hundred
23:17thousand pound loss but there again two and a half million is useful cash so
23:22eight months later there's real progress the external garages are complete the
23:29ground floor is up the tower is at second floor level and the defensive bulk of
23:34this building is beginning to take shape so this is the bridge crossing the moat
23:40so it's a fish pond I hope they should look quite good when it's all done and
23:46not so shit over this way we've got our outdoor courtyard so we have a pond in
23:53the middle everything is bigger than I thought it would be I'm very bad with
23:57size it is much much bigger than anybody imagined these metal trays are lying in
24:03wait for yet more concrete to arrive they'll become roofs in between them runs
24:08the defensive approach to the front door this is an open walkway that leads to
24:14the front door with these sort of cast beams over the tops quite car silly we
24:17explored having them pre-made for us but it was very expensive so they're gonna
24:21make our own it's just something that I've never done before so we're a little
24:27bit cautious with it
24:30Matt's attempting these flying concrete beams
24:34holding well he's also pouring the concrete roofs and surprisingly three walls underneath we
24:44drilled some holes in the deck and the idea is the concrete would just flow down and fill the walls at
24:48the same time can't find that hole now the problem is though that once the
24:51concrete on top you can't find the holes oh shit so we're having to sort of
24:55scratch around and find them
24:56keep searching everywhere foolish potentially I gotta find the next one now
25:00this is a client driven can we go a little bit quicker please oh I found one
25:05Matt's bravery is heroic but not every experimental idea is going to work as
25:11peers should know he and Emma are now eight months behind morning darling hi morning
25:18you should call him darling
25:19while half the team pause concrete they are helping to build the tower
25:31I've never done this before but I'm not afraid of a challenge and I love a bit of
25:38physical labor you take one of those wrap it round yeah each block is reinforced
25:44with steel bars wired together pull the hook the concrete will be poured into the
25:50void and every single one everyone every single one gosh okay my role today is
25:58probably more moral support than actually building support I think I'm more of a
26:02liability every penny counts busy yeah yeah exactly there are some
26:0720 kilometers of rebar to fit into the walls and wire together the blocks slide
26:14over the bars and the process with plenty of tailoring of cutting of blocks to the
26:20right shape appears and Emma it's an eye-opener the block work was sold to us as a
26:29bit of a Lego and being here today it clearly is not Lego actually doing it is much easier to
26:36understand why it's a labor-intensive and time-consuming and therefore painful payroll costs are around half a
26:44million a year peers has already borrowed two million from private lenders at a twelve percent interest rate
26:51even then he doesn't have enough to finish look at the size of the project it
26:56absolutely eats through any money so we talk now in sort of weeks and months of
27:00how we're sustaining things the pressure's on all the time it's very difficult to get a break from it
27:05perhaps the largest problem with peers and Emma's castle now nearly three years on is the sheer
27:22quantity of materials needed there's 183 pieces of steel throughout the castle
27:26this is definitely commercial grade construction with the amount of steel
27:30work in this surrounding the steel there are 25,000 blocks open then there's the
27:37stone cladding not great blocks of stone but 14,000 fake tiles I never saw it
27:47really in person until until we ordered it all so yeah I'm really pleased it's a bit
27:51smaller than I would have liked but I think it looks great we're about quarter
27:56of a million pounds just the cladding I think from running my own companies the
28:01challenges are the same so I don't really think about the size of number it's just
28:04more about how do I afford it or find the money in the following six months as the
28:13tower and a bedroom wing grow so do the invoices although there are at least
28:19rooms to see you guys happy happy happy one member of the team Lee is making the
28:27first partitions I'd describe it as a mace very big lots of different doors isn't
28:35there levels those levels grow inexorably rising through Christmas and the new year
28:42with spring around the corner they finish the castle's shell
28:48three and a half years in it looks like a multi-story car park but the approach that does pack a punch
29:00well this is exciting if also a little threatening this is a bit like that space
29:07between the Barbican the front entrance to a castle you know the little gatehouse and
29:11the main entrance where effectively you're trapped the portcullis comes down
29:17there and this one remains shut and you don't know if there are spotters up there
29:21with cross bosom you're being sussed out before you're then allowed through the front door mercifully
29:27I'm still alive oh wow this is something of a grand entrance hello afternoon yeah good to see you
29:38I'm ready through the two portcullises you know into this which is it's really exciting this space
29:45well we haven't put the crocs in yet are the castle references somehow becoming more more
29:53resonant yeah I think they're really important because it's not particularly a pretty building
29:57it's those references that make it relevant it's going to be pretty though isn't it yeah it will be
30:01it will be eventually yeah but castles aren't necessarily pretty buildings no no no they're
30:07statements and they're purposeful yeah and I think that's what this will be is it giving you
30:11anything back yet or is it still sucking it's a huge um drain it does feel like groundhog day
30:17and you've chosen to go large yeah I get size wrong and I've got it wrong so this is where the
30:27staircase is going to be yeah yeah good thank you lead the way this tower is already elevated on a hill
30:34so which fly forget which floor we're on now not the top floor no no so each floor feels so much
30:41higher and exposed become as a bit more precarious as we go up there's still an exhausting amount
30:47to do you see north to Birmingham yes south to um south pole yeah how many weeks to go then do you
30:55writing about 30 weeks this is the speed part this is where we bring all the trades in what makes me
31:00think I've heard that before yeah go on give me the figure total budget I think we'll be over seven
31:07and by the time we finished that's a million yeah bloody hellfire that sum does at least include the
31:151.4 million they paid for the plot where does that all come from here sorry I it's borrowing I sold my
31:23car we've sold a house we had down in in the south coast we were selling a commercial building so
31:29anything we can it's going yes it's our everything yes peers it seems will never concede defeat but I
31:39wonder if Emma feels the same is it hard to let go of things yes definitely everything's gone but not
31:48finishing this would be a bigger heart wrench the personal investment of time and energy and face and
31:55relief exactly and you know we've absolutely wedded ourselves to here we've got ashes of family
32:03members in the woodland we've planted this is where we will grow old it's where our children will get
32:07married we hope yeah but I think that's also that this will leave a legacy won't it we will leave this
32:13monument yeah yeah bye five months later peers 30 week schedule has been blown to smithereens the
32:24castle is however a buzz with 25 workers the sparks are in and a team of plasterers crucially the window
32:33footers are here too Joe is in charge it's unbelievable I mean you can see the build from a few mile out
32:40before you even arrive it's quite daunting to be honest 81 windows costing 310 thousand pounds are
32:47due to go in over four weeks starting at the top of the tower today they're installing the chunkier
32:55glazing too big to be carried up the stairs so they've hired the biggest telehandler Matt could find
33:03it's a model that Jack the driver hasn't operated before I don't like how bumpy it is not even the
33:13fittest have worked at this height feel sorry for the young lads getting roped into operating machinery
33:18lovely bit of driving how old you reckon it is 25 all right I'm just trying to ease it that's all
33:25all right they're not even sure they'll be able to reach the 60 meter high opening how's that look this
33:32way ever so slowly Jack hoists eight thousand pounds worth of peers and Emmett glass past three floors
33:44it's gonna hit that it's probably gonna hit that but I might be able to pull the stillage yeah yeah
33:51it just needs to come a bit closer towards that stop moving around I think that's limit it's not moving
33:56is it yeah the reach is too short to push the whole stillage in let's bring it back out oh
34:03oh slow man you got another two meters they creep the machine forwards and try again gonna have to
34:12trample it it's very tense at the minute because I don't want to break the glass we are at it the
34:19machine's limit I might turn not to do that guys we can feel it on the sensors yeah drop down again they
34:29try twice more oh come forward a bit until finally on the fourth go miles better that we should be able
34:37get that yeah now come in yeah glass in tense how did I feel not good there's no rule book on
34:56getting a window to a four-story castle you know one two three well we got there in the end and we got
35:01it in safely so I'm up next the glazing as you might expect is slow it's tricky and some of the
35:08openings it turns out are too small the fitters are having to wait while sills get shaved down I
35:16think if I'm really honest it's probably where my lack of experience is starting to show I feel
35:24responsible it's ultimately it's more money for Pierce isn't it it's giving me the opportunity and you
35:28don't want to blow it so that's the that's the weight of it some openings just aren't ready so
35:35the fitters leave sooner than expected having put in just 14 windows delays of course mean more money
35:43the idea that this will become a family home for Pierce and Emma is already hanging in the balance so at
35:49the moment I'm at uh 353 invoices we can't afford not to finish now not only is the barn up for sale so
36:00is the castle this is the castle so as part of our agreement with the people who are lending us money
36:07at the moment is we have to market the property commercially now we're hoping we can remortgage or
36:12or find another way of putting some debt on the building and then that will allow us to live there but
36:17the house could be purchased if someone wanted to come along and buy it the risk is we all have
36:22had to sell the dream barn and the dream build and we won't be able to live in the location that we
36:28love so it is a tightrope that we're walking but with the hope that it will all come right in the end
36:35you can't sell living items on eBay can you otherwise you'd be on there for sale
36:40to preserve their hilltop hamlet give the locals a landmark that would erase the ghost of the folly
37:03they took down and possibly for the sheer hell of it Pierce and Emma decided to rebuild a castle near
37:09Stratford-upon-avon I'm keen to see it soon in case it's sold from under them you know I've been
37:18thinking the last time a castle was built in the UK I think was Castle Drogo it was a hundred years ago
37:24took 20 years to build and I'm not gonna wait that long besides which the question is not is this
37:31project finished because I don't think castles really ever are the question is more to do with
37:35its identity does this building really say castle four years have passed in its making twice the time
37:46they forecast oh well that that is really powerful
37:54it exudes strengs it's a war fully formed in silhouette it is a forbidding fortification it qualifies it's got
38:11castellations and arrow slits and everything should have worn my armor today the site is ancient the
38:20building in parts resembles the Acropolis and although not complete it is monumental that is one hell of an
38:32entrance I'm I'm gonna look for the moat though 120 meters above sea level it looks quite the citadel this is
38:45some walk around this building it's like walking around a castle hey well I should say happy castle
38:55it's good to see you well yeah this is fantastic it's quite powerful it's got real presence this thing yeah
39:09certainly a monument that I think you can see from all around like the old building was that cladding by the
39:15way which is very persuasive it's great but what's beautiful is there is the distinction between the hard-edged reveals of all the openings and where you put the stone where suddenly it's a
39:23and where you put the stone where suddenly that corner is a little more crumbly it's a bit more textured
39:28you pleased very pleased yeah because it is quite a stark building but the stonework ironically actually
39:33softens it well you both seem very chipper are you putting on a brave face or what I I feel like I'm putting
39:38on a brave face why it's immense I've understood how much I've bitten off also the little bit of OCD in me
39:45struggles with the process but I can see the finish line now so I think that's my motivation is this difficult to
39:52manage I mean his peers difficult to manage on occasion but we're still here we're still going and I love it I'm absolutely
39:59oh okay so you can blame up a little yeah I come in just having a wander around when all the builders have left and just
40:06quietly taking it in Matt's still with you very much so oh that's good news yeah he's really enjoying it so
40:13um we should maybe have a look inside outside this place has an appropriate raw brutal presence is it
40:22equally thrilling inside oh moat well that's strong it's lined it's ready for water the square columns are
40:33yet to be faced in stone with that will come more drama extraordinary across the moat is the glazed grand
40:42hall I love this place because it's sort of it's a meeting point the sort of Nexus this liminal half in
40:49half out space will connect through great slices of glass the moat the courtyard pool and that powerful
40:56approach to the front door as a piece of architecture it's promises great beauty yeah so don't stuff it up
41:03okay a floating oak staircase will arrive one day to take you to five bedrooms all is yet undressed
41:14above which floats the tower's second floor oh heavens where there's real progress this is so good to
41:26see is it all working yes yeah here's an Emma's locally made kitchen is posh and charming much like
41:36the driving force behind this place who designed the kitchen okay are you a cook no are you a cook yeah
41:48you are yeah my father was a chef and I like I like making things as you can tell like castles and pies
41:56yeah technically there's to five kitchens oh hang on a minute what sorry five the building yeah because
42:05we've got the flat we've got the office outside we've got the gym we don't always get on so you
42:11know if we can each have one kitchen that'll be fine won't it this is a world of stratospheric
42:19ambition beyond my comfort zone the next floor up is the sitting room like an eerie oh yeah lovely you
42:30look out and you're in a spaceship hovering thousands of feet above the earth what an extraordinary thing
42:37to build I can understand why you want to come this high I am seduced with tower living and this one
42:44is 21st century it'll run on renewable energy what's that little black box thing what's that do
42:49that's our little intelligent light switch I've been building for the last four years what's so
42:54special about a light switch though it's just on or off isn't it well I wanted something that brought
42:58all our technology together so from our heating our cooling our batteries our solar our wind and sort
43:04of create an interface that I could then control within the house is that going to pay for all of
43:08this is that the idea if it goes the way I want it to go definitely well for Piers's sake I hope
43:14it works out there is much castle yet to build but let's not forget he's also built this the test
43:21house a high-tech three-bedroom luxurious mini manor which hints towards what the castle might be if they
43:30can finish it it's taken a lot has it it's demanded a huge huge amount we've put everything into this we've
43:37put our hearts souls you know everything's in um financially as well how much have you spent
43:43for Piers just to the nearest like million about five and how much do you think you're going to
43:49spend probably another one okay so all in for six million so excluding the site and so forth yeah it's
43:56a whole lot of cash how much of it is um borrowing about half about half also a big amount yeah huge amount
44:02what's the percentage chance of you keeping hold of this project I think it's probably 50 50 we're
44:07in the process of refinancing and then that should see us through to either a sale or us being able
44:13to move in I'm hoping in the meantime the businesses that we're building are growing and this becomes
44:18part of that story is there a chance you could lose both homes this one and the one you're living
44:23in well there's always a small risk I'll make sure we wake up tomorrow work hard fight hard and we'll try
44:31and get the outcome we want does regret ever enter your lives do you do you know I I feel like we've
44:37built something quite substantial this I think will be here in 500 years I think we have definitely done
44:42the right buildings for the right environment in the right place yeah I really hope after all their
44:50toil this building rewards them and they get to live here well I honestly think this is going to be a
45:02great piece of exciting architecture truly outstanding and I mean that in every sense of the word on this
45:09hill now you might disagree you might think that it's an extravagant folly or a piece of hubris or one
45:17man's monument to himself or or to be fair to Piers and to Emma a castle of entrepreneurial dreams of
45:27engineering hope of experimentation innovation all of which of course has been paid for by Piers and
45:36Emma and all that cash that they borrowed whatever you sink I don't think I can help you here though
45:44because I'm going to have to come back I'm going to have to come and revisit this building when it's
45:49truly properly finished and when it has proved it's worse
46:0510 years ago in the Wirral Stuart and Rosie ripped out their 1960s bungalow it's going to be timber clad
46:11it's a big bold shape the drastic change left the neighbors unhappy I hate it I hate it and our
46:17hapless owners doubting themselves I'm not 100% sure about it the house was left nowhere near finished
46:24oh own plant toilet that's nice so nine years on I'm back this is a completely new room
46:29you
46:35go
46:36oh
46:36no
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