Back to the Ramparts

"An Englishman's home used to be his castle," roared outraged Householder William Clarke of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, but the protest was in vain. The local district council, of which he himself was a member, had decided that Clarke's house would make a better village office building. When Clarke refused to budge, the council sent out five burly bailiffs to carry out the condemnation order. Aided by two casual volunteers, the bailiffs picked up Clarke, dragged him down a rose-lined drive and dumped him, in a public road.

"My old dad," complained Clarke's daughter at a meeting of Uttoxeter townsfolk soon after, "was thrown in the street in the front of the very place where Mum's ashes were scattered." Five days after his eviction, the castellan himself took more direct action. Under cover of night, with a photographer standing by, he climbed right back in through a window (see cut). "It's good to be back," he announced.

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