Stratford upon Avon

Entrepreneur Piers and police officer Emma lived happily in a lovely barn on a hillside in the West Midlands. But when the crumbling old faux castle folly next door came up for sale, with the prospect of a sprawling new housing development replacing it, they took a drastic decision. They bought the building themselves in order to knock it down and build a giant landmark 21st century castle instead. It’ll have a tower, castellations, a moat, arrow-slits, loggia courtyards, and futuristic technology – the first new listed castle in the UK for 100 years.

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What Piers and Emma didn’t quite understand, until it was too late, was the actual size of the thing. At 1100 square metres it'll be the biggest building ever featured on Grand Designs. The gigantic structure, plus its sheer complexity during a time when material costs are soaring, causes their budget to spiral catastrophically, surging way past their already sizeable £2.2 million budget. But remarkably, instead of keeling over with the stress of it all, Piers and Emma keep at it with humour and positivity - even when it seems they might lose all they have, and price themselves out of the community they love.