Jamie Oliver has been given the go-ahead to build a greenhouse to grow vegetables in at his £6 million Essex mansion.
The celebrity chef, 45, has got the green light from the council to start work on the traditional timber-framed vegetable patch at his Grade-I listed 70-acre mansion estate – Spains Hall – in Finchingfield, Essex.
The TV chef bought the country mansion at the start of 2019 and had building work done on the house before he moved in with wife Jools and their five children.
New venture: Jamie Oliver has been given the go-ahead to build a greenhouse to grow vegetables in at his £6 million Essex mansion – Spains Hall in Finchingfield, Essex
The timber structure will be built on the site of the old greenhouse, and the roof will lean against the wall at a slant.
Jamie has also received the go-ahead to touch up windows on two of the bedrooms.
The plans say: ‘The works will have a beneficial impact on the appearance of the property, being like-for-like repairs of the windows and using traditional materials to replace the defective render and coping sections around the bay.
Family home: The TV chef bought the Finchingfield, Essex mansion at the start of 2019 and had building work done on the house before he moved in- he lives there with wife Jools and their five children (pictured March 2016)
‘The proposed greenhouse is to be built on the footprint of a former greenhouse and is small in scale and traditional in appearance.’
Braintree District Council planners granted permission, saying: ‘The application includes the erection of a timber framed greenhouse to the rear/side of the site.
‘The location of the proposed greenhouse matches the location of a former greenhouse. It would feature a mono-pitch lean to roof, against a brick wall.
‘The building would be fully glazed above a brick plinth. The Historic Buildings Consultant has stated that the proposed greenhouse reflects discussions during a pre-application meeting, and they state they support the application.
Before and after: Plans lodged with Braintree District Council reveal the new greenhouse will be ‘built on the footprint of a former greenhouse and be small in scale and traditional in appearance’ (right)
Sophisticated: The new greenhouse will also boast roof lights and a wood burning stove
‘Historic England states they have no objections to the greenhouse, and suggest the timber frame is painted white.’
Jamie hopes to grow fruit, vegetables and herbs at home to cook for his family just like Tom and Barbara in the 70s BBC sitcom The Good Life.
MailOnline has contacted Jamie’s representative for comment.
Jamie and wife Jools, 45, have already had a lot of restoration done to the property, including the entrance gates and the library window frame.
Spains Hall had only been used by three families, and had not been sold for 250 years before Oliver bought it.
Oliver has been broadcasting Channel 4 show Keep Cooking and Carry On from his home during the pandemic to give viewers ideas on what to cook.
Wow: The manor house boasts 12 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a large games room, a great hall, a dining room, two drawing rooms and a wine storage area
The manor house boasts 12 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, a large games room, a great hall, a dining room, two drawing rooms and a wine storage area.
Original features include a well on the ground floor, a priest hole on the first floor and a two-storey red-brick Tudor gazebo in the gardens, called The Prayer House.
The property also has an outdoor swimming pool, tennis courts and fishing lakes in its Grade-II listed gardens.
The large grounds are perfect for kids Poppy, 18, Daisy, 17, Petal, 11, Buddy, nine, and River Rocket, four.
Preserving history: Braintree District Council planners granted permission, saying: ‘The building would be fully glazed above a brick plinth. The Historic Buildings Consultant has stated that the proposed greenhouse reflects discussions during a pre-application meeting, and they state they support the application’
The country pad is close to the pub which Jamie’s parents Trevor and Sally ran when the chef was growing up.
Back in May Jamie applied for permission to improve the entrance to his country mansion despite furloughing 20 staff.
The chef wanted to fix an oak double-door with iron nails onto the front of his grand Essex country pad.
The new door will also have two windows which he will be able to open to see who is calling, providing him with greater security.
Plans lodged with Braintree District Council on April 23 – six days before it was confirmed that 20 staff had been furloughed – show that Oliver wanted to ‘improve and upgrade the existing front entrance to Spains Hall’.
He also wanted to remove the modern part-glass inner entrance door and replace it with the current historic front door.
Oliver’s agent Jane Gleeson, of Firstplan, said he wanted to upgrade the front door so it could ‘again function as the principal entrance to the house’.
She wrote: ‘Alterations to the entrance were permitted as part of works approved in 2004 and include a new, partly glazed inner door to the Hall.
‘It is proposed to replace this modern door with the existing historic oak door which is currently located in the cross partition in the entrance porch.
‘This will then match up with the existing historic door at the other end of the hall and provide symmetry.
‘A set of new paired doors is proposed to be inserted into the cross-partition position. These will be of historic pattern, with openable porter windows.’
The proposed renovations, validated on the council website on April 24, were submitted days after Oliver confirmed that he was furloughing 20 staff.
They also come 11 months after the Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group went into administration, with 20 restaurants closing and 1,000 staff facing redundancy.
In April 2020 the Jamie Oliver Group confirmed that 20 of its 120 employees have been furloughed because they cannot work during lockdown.
Happy couple: Back in May Jamie applied for permission to improve the entrance to his country mansion despite furloughing 20 staff (pictured with his wife Jools in 2013)