PROPOSALS to build the first castle in west Wiltshire for centuries have cut no ice with modern-day planners.

Entrepreneur Tom Rothschild was told his plans to build a four-storey Gothic-style castle just yards from more traditional cottages in Heywood were just too wacky.

Mr Rothschild, known for other unusual buildings including the millennium clock tower in Bythesea Road, Trowbridge, appealed to district planners to let him build a castle to delight people for generations.

He told last Thursday's central area committee: "It will be a benefit visually, it will be a beautiful building.

"It's a building that will enhance that area for future generations. I have built other weird buildings to say the least, I am just trying to do my best."

Mr Rothschild's designs showed a building with four towers, 12 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms, a two-storey garage block, and an ornate fountain.

Some councillors liked the romance of a castle being built in the district, but all agreed Heywood was just not the right place.

Cllr Tony Phillips said: "It's a really imaginative idea, nobody has built a castle here for a hell of a long time. However, the general feeling is that the residents and the parish council want to preserve that open area.

"I like the idea of a castle, but this is just the wrong place, it would be incongruous to the rest of the area."

Cllr Adrian Fox said: "Mr Rothschild certainly brings us some unusual and exciting applications and this is certainly one of those.

"This particular knight has a rather impossible quest to carry out to get planning permission and I think it is a mission impossible.

"Personally I don't like the design, it is more like the toy castles I used to play with as a child."

Cllr Trevor Carbin said: "Traditionally you didn't ask permission to build a castle, you raised an army, defeated the locals and built it where you wanted."