Manor owner fined £300k for using children’s gravestones as patio decorations
A MULTIMILLIONAIRE was yesterday ordered to pay £300,000 for his tasteless makeover of a Grade II-listed mansion – which included using children’s gravestones as patio decorations.
Llanwenarth House owned by Kim Davies
Property developer Kim Davies broke strict planning laws at the country manor that inspired Cecil Alexander to write the hymn All Things Bright And Beautiful.
A judge said 16th-century Elizabethan Llanwenarth house in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, looked like a “palace for an Iron Curtain dictator”.
A court heard Davies, 60, made “wholly inappropriate” changes to the property and then tried to sell it for £2.25million.
He paid £675,000 for it in 2007 and authorities were alerted to his illegal work by anonymous tip-off.
Kim Davies has admitted five counts of illegal alterations to manor house
What you did to that property was criminal. You’ve played for high stakes and you’ve lost
He was fined £60,000 and ordered to pay £240,000 in costs at Newport Crown Court.
The court heard he made wall plaques of headstones from a derelict chapel so three children were lying in unmarked graves. He replaced timber windows with plastic ones, removed an Elizabethan staircase and put in a whirlpool bath.
Prosecutor Nicholas Haggan said: “Layers of history were ripped out.”
Conservationist Mike Davies said it was the worst damage he’d seen to a building of such historic and architectural importance.
Kim Davies
Davies, of Caerleon, admitted five conservation charges.
Judge Daniel Williams told him: “What you did to that property was criminal. You’ve played for high stakes and you’ve lost.”