Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s $11 million Elizabethan country home is falling apart

Jamie Oliver is rapidly discovering what landed gentry have always known – that historic country homes are money pits.

The ‘Naked Chef’ spent £6million (AUD$11 million) on Spains Hall, a magnificent Elizabethan stately home, in 2019.

Now, he’s discovered that the windows and doors are rotting, with rain dripping in, and the redbrick facade is crumbling.

Oliver, 49, has been forced to seek permission to fix the problems because Spains Hall, near Finchingfield in Essex, is a Grade I listed building.

It has 12 bedrooms, ten bathrooms, two drawing rooms, a great hall and is one of the most important buildings of its kind in Britain.

The TV star has asked planners at Braintree District Council to be allowed to go ahead with ‘repair works to windows, glazed doors, masonry, coping stones and ancillary works’.

These works comprise, “sensitive repairs to Georgian timber sash windows and French doors on the South wing of the house.

“Sensitive repairs and repointing to brickwork [and] replace rotten 20th-century timber pentice boards and string course on the South wing using like-for-like materials and mouldings.”

A report sent to town hall bosses says some of the windows and doors have swollen shut because of rainwater and others leak and masonry has begun to drop off parts of the building’s facade, which needs urgent attention.

Spains Hall, which dates from the 16th century, was previously owned by the Ruggles-Brise family for almost 260 years.

Baronet Sir Timothy’s eldest son, Archie, manages the 2,000-acre estate which the family retained. Oliver has hosted a three-day ‘culinary journey’ at Spains Hall for £2,000 a head, hosted by top chefs and suppliers.

Groups of about 14 people take part in cooking classes, demos and dining experiences and a tour of his home.