Riber Castle
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Riber Castle was designed and built by John Smedley in 1862. The castle covers 18 acres and looms above the hills over looking the village of Matlock in Derbyshire.
Smedley employed craftsmen from Italy and other parts of the world when constructing the castle. A statement to show a mark of his wealth and taste for his fine quality craftsmanship.
Ten years later Smedley died leaving his wife Caroline to reside there till her death in 1892. After this the castle remained empty for almost 40 years untill in 1930 a local vicar turned the castle into a boys school.
With the outbreak of WWII it was decided by the Ministry Of Defence that Riber would be the ideal location for one of its many food storage dumps that scattered the country,.In 1940 the MOD moved in and restored the place as best they could given what little resources they had due to the War effort.
After the war the castle once again became vacant and left to the forces of nature to decay and fall into dilapadation. Riber remained empty for almost 20 years until 1962 when it was sold to David Cliffe, an ex school teacher who lived in the area for the sum of £500.00
Mr Cliffe was a keen zoologist and transformed the castle into a Nature reserve and renamed it the Fauna Reserve. Amongst the animals kept there where wallabies, reptiles and Lynx cats which they also started to breed.
Over the years that followed the reserve recieved a lot of criticism from animal rights activists. Later they would help bring about the reserves demise. Through lack of funding the reserve started to drop and in 2000 the RSPCA arrived and removed all the animals.
Since 2000 the castle has been empty and is now just a shell. Planning application has been put forward to turn the castle into apartments.
Riber Castle certainly has a varied history but its biggest claim to fame was in 2004 when local actor Paddy Constantine used the castle to feature in his film "Dead Mans Shoes".
Having only ever seen Riber from below the hills in Matlock. Storm and myself decided to pay the place a visit, so one sunny May afternoon we arrived and much to our amazement found the place deserted.
Riber is so imposing that it wouldnt be out of place in a Horror movie. The castle has an eerie presence to it, but this only adds to the ambience oand character of it.
