Jamie gets a roasting over plans to spruce up his £6m Tudor mansion
JAMIE Oliver is embroiled in a row with his local council over plans to alter his £6million Elizabethan manor house.
The TV chef has also been criticised for putting up security cameras without obtaining the correct permission.
As part of extensive renovations planned at Grade I-listed Spains Hall in Essex, Oliver, 43, wants to remove a Tudor cooking implement.
The trammel hook – which is adjustable and would have been used to hold a pot or kettle over an open fire – is in one of the manor’s 12 bedrooms, according to plans submitted to Braintree District Council.
However, planning officials say there is ‘no clear and convincing evidence to support its removal’ and claim Oliver has not presented any ‘immediate plans for a suitable reuse’.
The council says it will grant approval only if the hook is ‘carefully removed, protected and securely stored for later reuse’.
Officers warned that CCTV cameras have been attached to the manor ‘without listed building consent’ and that they will have to be removed.
Oliver bought the hall, which is set in 70 acres of parkland, in January. It was the first time it had been sold in 250 years.
Spains Hall dates back to 1570 and includes fragments of an earlier house which was built around 1400. Part of the building was being used as a wedding venue but Oliver intends to convert the property into a stunning family home for his wife Jools, 44, and their five children aged two to 17. He plans to renovate the library, lower the floor in the pantry larder and remodel the kitchen, which has an original bread oven. The manor has stables, an outdoor swimming pool, a wine cellar, a rooftop terrace, tennis courts and fishing lakes.