Andy1845c said:
Wow. Why has it deteriorated so much? Seems like someone should have saved it a long time ago. Can you walk right up to it? Or is it fenced in or somthing? Is it completly gutted out inside as the photo makes it look? Are there any pictures of it when it was occupied? Its pretty amazing. I've always been fascinated with old stone sturctures like that.
In the past it's been a school, and during WWII it was taken over by the army - I think the rot really set in after that?. In my lifetime it's been a zoo, but that was really in the grounds and not the main building - which has just been walls for years.
It's probably hard for you to realise how much history we've got round that area?, it was where the industrial revolution started, with the first weaving mills producing cloth on huge looms. There's really so much to see for anyone interested in history.
The guy who built Riber Castle, John Smedley, made his money in hydro's, where people went to 'take the waters', and be tortured in various 'liquid' ways
There are lots of old hydro's from back in Victorian times, Derbyshire Countty Councils offices are actually located in the old Smedley's Hydro. THis site has a number of local historical pictures
**broken link removed**, this one being the hydro back in 1906.