Sarah Beeney's ‘illegal Downton Abbey' farmhouse she built on TV show in new council row as she faces demolishing it

The Irish Sun

22-05-2025

SARAH Beeny is said to be having a showdown meeting with council enforcement officials.
The 53-year-old television star is facing a new investigation and row as officials are poised to visit the site.
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Sarah Beeny has a huge Somerset mansion
Credit: Instagram
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The property features in Sarah Beeny's New Life in the Country
Credit: Channel 4
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Sarah's home is Downton Abbey-esque
Credit: Instagram
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It even has a medieval themed bedroom
Credit: Instagram
This comes after she was ordered to demolish a major part of her 'mini Downtown Abbey', which featured in her hit telly show New Life in the Country.
The presenter agreed with Somerset Council to knock down a 1970s farmhouse, but - without planning permission - went ahead with extending the building instead.
When she applied for retrospective permission, she was refused and also lost her appeal in March.
There is currently a live enforcement notice for the farmhouse to be razed to the ground, but it could yet be saved by an unlikely source… roosting bats.
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They've been found in the dwelling and now there's set to be a meeting at the property between Sarah, husband Graham Swift and the council's enforcement and ecology teams.
A Somerset Council spokesperson said: "We are due to arrange a joint site meeting with Enforcement and Ecology Teams and the owners of the property to confirm the route forward following the recent appeal decision.
"We are also working with an ecologist with the appropriate licences to assist us as a result of a bat roost being found in the original dwelling to ensure we can be clear in terms of what mitigation would be required and acceptable."
The Sun reached out to Sarah's representative for comment, but they did not immediately respond.
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Sarah has been in a bitter six-year fight with local residents and the council to completely overhaul her rural estate in Stoney Stoke, Somerset, which she bought for £3M in 2018.
She put in a raft of planning applications and in one local compared her to Captain Tom's daughter.
Sarah Beeny loses battle with planners in property row at 'mini Downton Abbey' estate
Hannah Ingram-Moore built an illegal spa complex at her house in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire, claiming it was partly being used by her late father's charity, but the council ordered her to tear it down.
Neighbour Kevin Flint said: 'It's created a lot of bad feeling in the village.
'She was given permission to build the new house on condition she knocked down the old one which she extended and refurbished, it's just not on.
'She thinks she can move down here and ride roughshod over everybody but it's not going to happen.
'I think the fair thing would be for anything unauthorised on the site to be demolished like Captain Tom's daughter.
Sarah's New Life in the Country Channel 4 series has been charting her extensive renovations.
She had previously asked to build a completely new home - this was granted as long as the old home and its outbuildings were completely demolished.
She went ahead and built the new dwelling, yet didn't get rid of the old farmhouse, and extended it, adding new French doors and a first floor balcony.
Earlier this year, she scrapped plans to turn two barns into four new homes after a furious row with locals.
Half a dozen locals objected to the proposed development and said she had "blatantly ignored" an enforcement notice ordering her to remove earth banks built without planning permission.
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Sarah often takes on ambitious renovations
Credit: Outline Prodcutions