TV celebrity Richard Hammond’s planned alterations to his Herefordshire castle home have fallen through.

The Grand Tour and former Top Gear co-presenter was granted permission and listed building consent in 2019 for various works to the grade II* listed Bollitree Castle on the edge of Weston under Penyard.

But in March 2021 he put forward a new plan, seeking permission for “glazed kitchen and boot room extensions, internal alterations, and demolition of the existing conservatory to be replaced with a new sunroom”.

A statement from Mr Hammond’s architects explained that this would be preferable to the approved plans as it would not subdivide the existing kitchen, “compromising a well-proportioned room to form a boot room and utility”.

RELATED NEWS:

Mr Hammond’s “modest requirement for kitchen accommodation” could instead be met moving the kitchen to a “marginally larger” sunroom outside the dining room and hall.

This would also “negate the need to link the house to the other barns”, one of which is grade I listed, the statement added.

What are your thoughts?

You can send a letter to the editor to have your say by clicking here.

Letters should not exceed 250 words and local issues take precedence.

But Herefordshire Council’s buildings conservation officer Conor Ruttledge objected that the new application simply resubmitted the previous bid’s heritage statement, “without the necessary re-appraisal having been undertaken”.

With its “more pavilion-like appearance”, the planned kitchen would “introduce a functional-use type which was never intended in this location”, he added.

OTHER NEWS:

The Georgian Group also considered this “would be a lumpen alien feature which would cause harm to the appearance of this delicate largely eighteenth-century gothick façade”.

And Historic England objected to “its visually and architecturally intrusive form and inappropriate function”.

Herefordshire Council’s development manager Simon Rowles has now written to Mr Hammond saying that given the time that had passed since consultation on the scheme ended last year, it was now “disposed of”.

“A number of attempts have been made to try to address the heritage concerns, but to date it has not been possible to arrange a meeting, and you have failed to provide the additional information required,” he wrote.

Mr Hammond was asked for comment.