The children of a British farmer and his wife grew up “looking at straw out of the windows of the house,” and one son was even kept from school on the day his classmates were to paint pictures of their houses. Why? Because they lived in a mock Tudor castle hidden behind a giant screen of hay bales and didn’t want anyone else to know. (Uh, why?) The farmer and his wife hoped to take advantage of a legal loophole that allows buildings without planning permission to stand if no objections have been made after four years (i.e., what you can’t see you can’t protest). But Reigate and Banstead Borough Council in Surrey wants the castle torn down. “It does not count, because the property was hidden behind hay bales,” said an official. “No one knew it was there.”