Grade I listed former court house reduced in price by 20% after owner is targeted by anti-English militants
Anglophobia is well known to be rife in certain parts of Wales and such organisations as Meibion Glyndŵr (Sons of Owain Glyndŵr), Mudiad Amddiffyn Cymru (Welsh Defence Movement) and the Free Wales Army targeted English residents and English owned businesses from the 1960s to the 1990s.
In spite of provocation from English people such as A. A. Gill – who in 1997 commented that the Welsh were “loquacious, dissemblers, immoral liars, stunted, bigoted, dark, ugly, pugnacious little trolls” –and Rod Liddle – who described the Welsh as “miserable, seaweed munching, sheep-bothering pinch-faced hill-tribes” in 2010 – peace has generally reigned in the time since but in Caernarfon in Gwynedd, an English property developer named Aaron Hill experienced exactly the contrary after buying a Grade I listed former court house.
In September 2014, 49-year old Mr Hill told Wales Online that vandals had smashed his windows 46 times, daubed graffiti across doors, attacked his car and urinated through his letterbox. He told the paper he had reported about 26 incidents to North Wales Police and remarked: “They said: ‘You need to f**k off where you belong. We don’t want you here. We’ll burn the place down’”.
Plainly having had enough, Mr Hill placed The Old Court House on the market for £650,000 ($814,000, €768,000 or درهم3 million) in September 2016. It has not sold and was reduced to £525,000 ($657,000, €620,000 or درهم2.4 million) earlier this month.
Offered by Beresford Adams, the property dates to 1296 and has partly restored by Mr Hill. It features 8 bedrooms, vast reception rooms and even comes with former prison guard and interview rooms. Somewhat strangely decorated also, the selling agents remark: “Due to this property’s location and size it would be ideal as a small boutique hotel or to be sub-divided into two or more dwellings”.
