FORMER Top Gear host Richard Hammond's plans for a new kitchen extension attached to his Herefordshire castle home will look like "a lumpen alien feature" - according to conservationists.

Hammond, 51, won permission for a major makeover of his historical house in 2019 but now wants to change the approved design.

Conservationists are satisfied with his bid to remodel the barn at Bollitree Castle in Weston-under-Penyard, near Ross-on-Wye.

But they are opposing a proposal to bulldoze the existing conservatory and replace it with a larger glazed new kitchen at the Grade II* house.

Historic England and the Georgian Society have called on Hammond to go back to his original scheme.

But Hammond's architects say the original approved plans for his Georgian Manor house within a mock gothic castle have been changed because he wants the kitchen to be next to the dining room and hall.

The Georgian Group senior conservation adviser James Darwin urges the Grand Tour TV presenter, who lives in the house with wife Mindy and their two daughters Isabella and Willow, to think again.

"The proposed large new glazed room on the southern elevation housing a kitchen would be a lumpen alien feature which would cause harm to the appearance of this delicate largely eighteenth-century gothic façade," he wrote.

"We would urge the applicant to withdraw their proposals until such time as the issues raised by Heritage England and others can be addressed.

"If the applicant is unwilling to do so, then listed building consent and planning permission should be refused."

Historic England buildings' inspector Sarah Lewis says putting a glazed kitchen on show outside the house would create unjustified harm to the listed building.

She added that externalising a traditionally low-status, and discreetly located function on the garden elevation of the historic house "would create an awkward and inappropriate contrast".

She told planners: "Historic England considers that the kitchen would result in harm to significance due to its visually and architecturally intrusive form and inappropriate function."

Hammond, 51, keeps his classic car and motorbike collection at his home and has recently announced that he plans to set up a restoration business called The Smallest Cog to support the skilled workers who can bring them back to life.

He says he will reveal all at the London Classic Car Show and he is due to appear on June 26.

But the announcement has sparked speculation the business could be based at Bollitree where he has also recently applied for barns to be turned into guest accommodation with ensuite facilities.

"It's in my bones," said Hammond who told interviewers he wants to impress his coachbuilder grandfather.

"I've always wanted to prove to him that there's more to me than driving around the world, talking about other people's supercars, crashing them and then pretending to weld them up in a desert.

"It's also about a passion of mine to preserve crafts – my grandfather could work with wood, metal and just about anything.

"I wanted to do something real in the car industry rather than just being a commentator on the outside of it. This business is the perfect opportunity for me to do that."

But first he has to deal with the headache at Bollitree Castle which is described in the report as: "An idiosyncratic mix of vernacular timber-frame, classic Georgian and later 18th century remodelling in the picturesque Gothick style.

"The Grade II* house is seen in the context of its Grade II dovecote, barns and a Grade I sham castle which, like the house, features Gothick mullioned windows, crenelated parapets and turrets.

"As a group, with the sham castle set rising behind a roadside pond, the buildings have immense character and much historic and aesthetic value."