Unearthing the secrets of a centuries-old castle

The secrets of a castle dating back to Norman times have been unearthed by its owner, who moved there at the age of nine and who knows the vast property so well, she says she can find her way around at night without a torch.

Katherina Garratt-Adams said other previous occupants of Kinnersley Castle in Herefordshire included a Formula 1 driver and a World War Two Nazi sympathiser.

At one stage it faced demolition, but her parents, who bought it in 1954, fought to save it, a journey documented in her book Saving the Castle.

"I know it very well. I walk round in the dark," Ms Garratt-Adams said.

Describing behind-the-scenes life in the castle, for the BBC's Secret Herefordshire series, she told how she got to know its rooms, hallways and gardens as a schoolgirl.

Katherina Garratt-Adams has lived in the castle since the age of nine

One of many Marches castles built by the Normans along the Welsh border, Kinnersley stands 10 miles from Hay-on-Wye.

Notable residents included Ronald Nall-Cain, the second Baron Brocket, who was in contact with high-ranking Nazi officials during World War Two and had his properties handed to the War Office, Ms Garratt-Adams said.

"He was actually under house arrest here for his Nazi sympathies," she said. "He sold the estate after the war."

Other owners included the Le Mans winner Peter Walker, until he offered to sell the castle for £3,500 "to anyone who would live here", she added.

Soon afterwards, her family bought it and moved in.

In those post-war years, many other grand houses faced the same fate, she said.

Ms Garratt-Adams claims she knows the castle so well, she can wander around in the dark!

People wanted to be free of the responsibilities of maintaining them, they faced inheritance taxes and wanted to liquidate assets, but the culture had also changed, she said.

"Once the men had gone off to war they saw another life they wanted - they didn't want to be pulling their forelocks to the lord of the manor any more."

At the time they moved in, they were not the kind of people who lived in a castle, Ms Garratt-Adams said, and she was treated as "an oddity" at school, which sometimes was not easy as a child.

But after living there for more than 70 years, Ms Garratt-Adams said: "I'm used to having a lot of space and I love being in the country. We've got eight acres of garden, which is great. We've got wonderful trees.

"It is a bit isolated here but that is, I think, the nature of these villages."