Willersley Castle: Stately home ordered to remove shooting range

The building was previously being used as a hotel

A stately home has been ordered to remove an axe-throwing centre and shooting range it built without planning permission.

Derbyshire Dales District Council approved plans to turn Willersley Castle, near Cromford, into an outdoor pursuits attraction last year.

The Grade II* listed site - once owned by industrialist Sir Richard Arkwright - had previously been used as a hotel.

Three ranges and two other structures must be removed by 27 April.

'Visual clutter'

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said the outdoor adventure and activity equipment was built by the new owners, Globerow Ltd, in the grounds of the home.

The council said the change in use from a hotel to adventure centre use was a conversion that did not include new structures.

Planning inspector Elaine Gray found an enforcement notice served by the council on the castle owners in June last year was largely upheld, saying that while items such as poles and tyres did not require planning permission, features such as the ranges for air rifles, archery and axe throwing needed permission.

Two timber "landing stages" for visitors boarding kayaks or canoes on the River Derwent are allowed to remain because they are "fairly unobtrusive", despite representing "introduced development to the riverside where none previously existed".

Willersley Castle, seen here in a picture by Joseph Wright, is a former mansion of Sir Richard Arkwright

Ms Gray said the stately home and its estate, built in 1792, represent a "significant" part of the "outstanding universal value" of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site.

"The design of the landscape emphasises the natural elements such as the river, the trees and the form of the land," she said.

"These elements complement the listed building and provide a fitting setting.

"The development introduces structures that add visual clutter, and detract from the natural elements, which should be to the fore in views to or from the listed building, or when moving through the designed parkland."