A Wellington Heath couple are fighting a developer's plans to build a country house in the heart of the childhood garden of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Peter and Sharon Maiden say the 18th Century Walled Garden at Hope End is the last intact piece of the estate that would have been known by the famous Victorian writer.

They are urging local people to write in with their objections to Herefordshire Council's planning department.

Mr Maiden, of the nearby Hope End House, said: "The application is described as an amendment to planning permission. This is not the case. The application refers to the building of a new house on a totally new site.

"This is not acceptable in an area of outstanding natural beauty and of great and specific historical interest."

Planning permission for a substantial extension to an existing cottage on the site, which is not listed, was granted by Herefordshire Council in 1998 and amended last year.

But another amended plan moved proposed development away from one edge of the garden and shows a luxury three-bedroomed house, built against the rear wall and dominating the middle of the garden.

Plans submitted by Cirencester architects, the Arbuthnott Laden-burg Partnership, on behalf of developer John Donovan, show a Queen Anne or Georgian-style country house, with an imposing arched doorway and nine windows on its frontage.

Neither the architect nor the developer were available for comment.

Herefordshire Council planning officer Andrew Banks said the original planning permission was for a large extension and the proposal for the new building was of a comparable size. He said the council would look at the Walled Garden "as one site" when considering the amended plan.

But Mr Maiden said: "This is becoming a technical issue and in my view the developers are going for a loophole in planning law. It needs to be examined at a higher level. I would be prepared to go to the courts."