MY MINI MANSION
…that’s taken 30 years to build and still isn’t finished!
WITH old masters’ portraits in the great hall, a chapel with stained glass windows and a wine cellar crammed with dusty bottles, Hordle Castle boasts all the trappings of an impressive stately pile.
But you won’t find it in the National Trust guide books. Not yet, anyway – as it is made of cereal packets and egg cartons and is only around 3ft tall.
Jon Trenchard, 42, has spent more than 30 years building his miniature castle and believes it could take the rest of his life to finish, with every feature inspired by a room or item from an actual historic home.
So far the actor, of south- east London, has built eight rooms. He has at least a dozen more to complete and wants to install tiny visitor signs and a cafe.
He said: ‘My dream is that I’ll be able to leave the castle to the National Trust when I die.’
Hordle – a play on the word ‘ hoarder’ because it is so jampacked with items – also boasts a Turkish bath, escape tunnel and its very own set of battlements. Each of the minute features has been made by hand and Mr Trenchard spent hundreds of hours drawing out stunning stained glass windows for the chapel.
Mr Trenchard said: ‘Getting into miniatures was kind of inevitable, my dad was into model railways and my mum was into dollhouses. As a kid they always took me to National Trust properties.’
He added: ‘My friends think I’m mad – and to be honest I think I’m a bit bonkers too.’