An Englishman’s home up for sale
A CASTLE owned by one of the UK’s most controversial millionaires is up for sale after being taken over by receivers.
Caverswall Castle is a stunning grade I listed pile which was built in the late 13th century on the site on an Anglo-Saxon manor – and one of the last in England surrounded by a moat.
Property tycoon Robin MacDonald, 48, bought the crumbling ruin, near Stoke-on-Trent, for
£1.7 million in 2006.
In 2014, he put the castle on the market for £3 million saying he wanted to downsize to a smaller house for him and his wife and their three children.
But he was unable to sell the property and, in August 2014, he was fined £17,000 and ordered to pay almost £100,000 when he admitted breaching an abatement order. Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard MacDonald staged large parties, including team building exercises, weddings and firework displays in the 20-acres of grounds.
The court also heard he billed the castle as a dream wedding venue but it turned into a nightmare for 78 couples who had their bookings cancelled when the company running it went bust.
The castle, which costs around £12,000-a-year in energy and water bills, has now been taken over by Joint LPA receivers. The castle went back on the market this week without a guide price amid concerns it could be sold for a knock-down price.
Companies House records show Mr MacDonald’s Caverswall Castle Ltd went into liquidation. Another company, Historic Holiday Homes Ltd, which he also ran from the castle, had a ‘receiver action’ status put against it.
Speaking previously, Mr MacDonald said he regretted buying the castle. He said: “I didn’t want to look back in years to come and think I could have bought that. I was a very proud young man when I got the keys.
“Maybe now I would speak to that young man and advise him to stand back and think a little. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.”
The castle’s earliest recorded owner was Emuf de Hesing, before being passed to Sir William de
Caverswall who incorporated the tributaries to form the moat.
The castle fell into decay until 1625 when the Mayor of Stafford Matthew Cradon and a wealthy merchant bought and rebuilt it as a Jacobean mansion.
As well as a moat, the threeturret castle boasts 18 bedrooms, nine reception rooms, 13 bathrooms, dungeon and a library with a Wedgwood ceiling. During the English Civil War, the castle was used as a garrison by parliamentary forces before later becoming a sanctuary to an order of Benedictine Nuns who had escaped the French Revolution.
The Wedgewood family lived at Caverswall during the 1880s but, by 1891, the castle had been bought by Mr W E Bowers, who owned it for 40 years and added a wing that is now a separate home.