A RETIRED military officer has launched a stinging attack on the inclusion in Richmond castle grounds of a feature inspired by the story of conscientious objectors imprisoned there during the First World War.

Maj Roy Tyler, who lives in the town, branded as cowards the men dubbed the Richmond 16, who narrowly escaped execution after refusing to fight in the conflict.

He accused English Heritage of a "twisted sense of values" for allowing the cockpit garden at the castle to include a topiary feature with 16 trees to represent the 16 pacifists.

In a letter to the D&S Times today, Maj Tyler, a retired Royal Military Police officer and holder of the MBE, writes: "Cowards they certainly were, though it is customary in this 'enlightened' age to dress them up in laudatory phraseology, but cowards they remain."

He said the men ate well and slept soundly while those at the front risked - and often lost - their lives defending their country.

"Is it co-incidence that English Heritage should choose to insult our town by locating this garden to infamy within yards of the regimental headquarters of the Green Howards, Yorkshire's regiment?" said Maj Tyler, who founded the North Yorkshire branch of the Royal Military Police Association in 1995.

English Heritage, which opened the cockpit garden last week as one of six contemporary heritage gardens at its properties across the UK, defended the design, which was chosen from a dozen submitted by architects.

David Fraser, regional director for Yorkshire, said: "The designer of Richmond Castle's contemporary heritage garden drew inspiration from the castle's rich military diversity over the last 800 years.

"The topiary shapes in the parterre are a reminder of the Richmond 16 - the garden is not a celebration of or a tribute to their imprisonment.

"English Heritage would be failing in its duty to provide greater understanding and access to all its properties if it did not reflect important episodes in their history."

l Letters: page 20