fort

“He just spent five months holding down the fort at home while I was on Broadway,” she recalled.

Negotiations to surrender the fort ended with its officers brutally lynched.

Diamond, who has previously worked in Prem Rugby with Sale Sharks and Worcester Warriors, held the fort as Newcastle struggled to compete financially with the rest of the league.

“Maybe one of the things I’d like to do is ask them to give us ownership of the land where we have the big fort,” he said.

But for one former software company CEO, the opportunity to bring back to life a derelict 19th Century Napoleonic fort brought with it more challenges than he had ever anticipated.