Fury in UK town as aristocrat in row with council over barbed wire

An aristocrat has lost his appeal to erect a barbed wire fence along the perimeter of a common close to his 17th-century estate.

Lord Charles Townshend, owner of Raynham Estate, hoped to construct the fencing around Shereford Common, near Fakenham, Norfolk.

The five-hectare plot of land is used for grazing cattle including Lord Townshend’s pure-bred Aberdeen Angus cows.

The lord became the 8th marquess in 2010 with the family having owned the land around Raynham Estate since the 12th century. The country house was built in 1621 and the 5,000 acre estate is one of the biggest in Norfolk.

The lord submitted an application to the Planning Inspectorate in August 2023.

The plans said the  barbed wire fence would keep the land in “good agricultural and environmental condition” as it would enclose the grazing cattle.  However, the planning inspectorate denied the appeal as it would have ‘no positive impacts’ on the neighbourhood.

The inspectorate said the fence would be “highly visible” to local people and it would “harm the public’s enjoyment of the landscape”. It added that there were other alternatives to prevent the cattle of pure-bred Aberdeen Angus straying while maintaining the condition of the common.

It said: “The application would have no positive impacts on the neighbourhood and would result in a moderate adverse effect on the conservation of the landscape. Alternatives to the fencing would maintain the condition of the common and would allow for grazing by preventing cattle from straying, whilst avoiding the adverse effect.”

The Open Spaces Society had also objected to the plans, stating there are public rights of access over the land and that the fence would keep the public out. The conservation charity’s case officer Hugh Craddock added there was “no evidence” that the estate had been given consent to erect the original fence.

Electric fencing and some wooden fenceposts are currently present around much of the common and is thought to have been there for decades. The planning inspectorate said consent for previous or current fences are not a matter for them to deal with.

However they added that the barbed-wire fence proposal would have no negative effect on the interests of people with rights of access across the land. But these were “neutral matters” which did not weigh in the estate’s favour.