Pictured: ‘Tenant from hell’ partner of woman dubbed the ‘Hyacinth Bucket of Cheshire’ who is ‘refusing’ to let prospective buyers look around £3M Evelyn Waugh’s Cotswolds mansion that they rent for just £250-a-year
- Eight-bedroom Piers Court is in the village of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire
- Wannabe buyers unable to view home amid claims tenants are refusing to leave
- Bechara Madi and his partner Helen Lawton are paying £250 a year to rent it out
- Waugh bought it for £3,600 in 1937 and wrote Brideshead Revisited there
The Evelyn Waugh superfan who lives in the writer’s Cotswold mansion and is said to be refusing access to prospective buyers has been pictured for the first time amid speculation she could thwart the mansion’s upcoming auction.
Helen Lawton and her partner Bechara Madi are paying £250 a year under a Common Law tenancy to live in Piers Court, the eight-bedroom mansion in Gloucestershire where Waugh wrote many of his best novels including Brideshead Revisited, Officers and Gentlemen and Men at Arms.
Ms Lawton, reported in The Times as a ‘Hyacinth Bucket figure from Cheshire’ who had been hankering after the house for 25 years, asked her millionaire ex-BBC boss friend Jason Blain for help when the house came on the market in 2018 – and Blain duly set up a company to buy the property for £2.9million a year later.
The Waugh superfan and her finance boss partner then set themselves up as tenants, on a rolling six-month tenancy with rent of £250 a year. On the day of the purchase, they resigned as directors of the company.
The former home of writer Evelyn Waugh, in Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire, is up for sale. The exclusive home is seen from the air. It boasts eight bedrooms but little is known about the current state of its interior, because its tenants will not allow prospective buyers inside
Helen Lawton and her partner Bechara Madi, pictured, are paying £250 a year under a Common Law tenancy to live in Piers Court
Prospective buyers are unable to view Piers Court because the tenants are refusing to leave and will not let estate agents or buyers in.
Speaking to The Times, Ms Lawton insisted: ‘The house is not for sale, it is coming off the market.
‘We’ve been through hell in the last three weeks. This is going to become very big public knowledge.’
The eight-bedroom property in the village of Stinchcombe was bought by Waugh for £3,600 in 1937.
The auction of Piers Court takes place on December 15. The auctioneers have warned prospective buyers: ‘The property is occupied under a Common Law Tenancy at a rent of £250 per annum.
In images that were taken on Tuesday, Piers Court is seen from a public footpath that runs through the property’s grounds
Evelyn Waugh (left) lived at Piers Court for 19 years and wrote novels including Brideshead Revisited, Officers and Gentlemen and Men at Arms in the library there. The mansion was bought in 2019 by Jason Blain (pictured above in 2009 with producer Deborah Schindler), a former BBC executive
‘A notice to quit was served on the occupant on 19 August 2022 and a copy of such notice was affixed to the property gate on 22 August 2022. Prospective purchasers should take their own legal advice regarding this and will be deemed to bid accordingly.’
Mr Blain bought the mansion with a £2.1million loan from the London bank C Hoare & Co.
In January this year, it emerged that he was being sued by the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel near Hyde Park over an alleged unpaid bill. According to documents filed at the High Court, he allegedly booked a £4,275-a-night penthouse for six days but stayed for eight months.
According to court reports at the time, Mr Blain was accused of owing £731,500 of a £1.25million bill, alongside other fees such as £55,000 in service costs, £30,100 for valet parking and £25,497 for room service.
He was said to have emailed the luxury hotel in June last year saying: ‘The bill is of course my debt and this will be reversed at a future point.’
The eight-bedroom property is in the village of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire. Novelist Evelyn Waugh bought it for £3,600 in 1937. It has been put up for auction with a guide price of £400,000 less than the £2.9million it was sold for just four years ago
Prospective buyers are unable to view Piers Court because the current tenants are said to be refusing to leave and will not let estate agents or buyers in. The auction of the property takes place on December 15
Mr Blain, who lives in Perthshire, Scotland, was taken to court in November 2021 by Torsten van Dullemen, the Mandarin’s general manager.
They claim he paid back £508,500 of the bill, with the most recent coming on June 9, 2021, for £25,000.
The claimant said he emailed area director of finance Allan Collier to admit to owing the money and said he would pay it ‘at a future point’. But the Mandarin was then seeking the repayment for £740,832.01.
The picturesque country estate near near Dursley, was bought by Waugh for £3,600 with cash given to him by the parents of his second wife, Laura Herbert.
The pair lived in the mansion for 19 years – but it was let to a convent school briefly during the Second World War.
Pictured: Evelyn Waugh and his wife Laura Herbert in 1937. Waugh used the money from his wife’s father to purchase Piers Court
Waugh and his wife used to stage stunning dinner parties at Piers Court, attended by famous pals and intellectuals, including novelists Graham Greene and Nancy Mitford and renowned poet John Betjeman.
In his diary, Waugh described Piers Court as the ‘kind of house which takes a lot of living up to’.
But Waugh’s love for the mansion was soured in June of 1955, when two Daily Express reporters paid an unexpected visit to Piers Court to interview him.
The furious author reportedly told them to: ‘Go away. Go away. You read the notice didn’t you? No admittance on business.’
Describing the encounter in his diary, Waugh later wrote: ‘I sent them away and remained tremulous with rage all the evening.’
Feeling the mansion had been ‘polluted’, the author placed it on the market with estate agents Knight Frank the next week. It sold for £10,000.
Knight and Frank advertised and were asking for offers in excess of 2.5million for the 23.5-acre estate.
The sprawling country estate features eight bedrooms, six reception rooms and six bathrooms. It also has its own tennis court and paddock.
The Grade II-listed building’s history stretches back to the 17th century when it was used by royalists during the English Civil War.
It was purchased by the wealthy mill-owning Pynffolf family in 1640, who remained at the home for about 150 years.
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