James Corden’s plans to build a megahome next to the Thames River may be delayed because, according to experts, the surrounding land is rich in ancient and Roman artefacts.
It will now be necessary to conduct archaeological research to see whether the location of Corden’s Templecombe House is home to any ancient communities.
He applied to destroy the existing 1960s pad and construct a new mega house inside its footprint.
The 45-year-old TV celebrity moved back home with his wife Julia and their three kids last year after residing in the US for eight years.
He had a long run on one of American TV’s most influential programmes, The Late Late Show.
When speaking about leaving his LA home in 2022, he said, ‘I love being in Los Angeles. I love it but we always knew it would be an adventure and not a final destination.’
Corden has now swapped sunny California for the quintessentially English surrounds of Henley-on-Thames.
The Gavin and Stacey actor bought the £8 million 1960s modernist home, on the banks of the Thames back in 2020, but it had deteriorated to such an extent that he now wants to raze it to the ground and replace it with a state-of-the-art mansion.
However, he has already faced several planning setbacks and is now embroiled in a fresh conservation controversy.
If anything worthwhile is discovered, the effort might cause the construction to be delayed by many months.
It comes after a report submitted to Wokingham Borough Council just a few weeks ago showed there were significant sites of interest within a few hundred metres of Corden’s proposed home.
A report that examined a 1-kilometre area surrounding the comedian’s property was written by James Meek of HCUK Group on behalf of the Atlantic Swiss Agency (ASA).
A few nearby sites of interest were described in the report, including two Neolithic flint blade flakes discovered in a Roman ditch during excavation on the northern edge of the site, additional early Neolithic flints from Park Place and Aspect Park Golf Course located 440 metres north, and seventeen early Mesolithic flint fragments discovered on a haulage site 385 metres northeast of the northern boundary.
Middle to Late Iron Age features dating around 500 BC, including postholes, two storage and trash pits, and lines probably indicating field borders, were uncovered during archaeological studies at multiple places roughly 350 to 400m east and southeast of the eastern boundary.
Meanwhile, in 1995, an excavation on Remenham Hill, a little under 1km north, revealed a place occupied by early Iron Age people.
I just don’t see how a man with such a bad attitude and no talent has ever managed to have a good career. Perhaps it’s because there are so many of them out there, and he’s clearly doing something right to someone.
Yes, you guessed it. I don’t like the bloke very much at all.
I would be more concerned by the calamitous news that he’s back in the United Kingdom and could appear on our screens again, which isn’t good news.
The idea that every Roman item is far more fascinating than he could ever be is probably upsetting him, but then again his bank balance is probably way more than I even get in a year, so I suppose if you don’t like him like I don’t like him, we don’t have to watch it because, of course, I wouldn’t want to be watching a Muppet.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 