James Corden’s plans to create a super mansion near the River Thames could be held up after experts said the area nearby was littered with Roman and prehistoric finds.
Archaeological work will now have to be done to find out whether there are any historic settlements on the site of Corden’s Templecombe House.
He applied to demolish the 1960s pad currently on the site and build a new mega mansion within its footprint.
The TV star, 45, has spent eight years living in the United States and returned home last year along with his wife Julia and their three children.
James Corden is planning to demolish this 1960s home near the River Thames in Berkshire
He wants to replace it with a state-of-the-art property inspired by a Victorian country house
The current house replaced Temple Combe, which was built in the Victorian period
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 £8m 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 faced several planning setbacks already and now is embroiled in a fresh conservation controversy.
Corden has been ordered to commission a series of test trenches across the site, after historians made it a condition of the planning permission that archaeologists are allowed on-site.
The work could hold the build back by months, especially if anything of value is found.
James Corden, pictured, bought the dilapidated mansion while living in LA with a view of knocking it down and replacing it with a new home for when he returned to the UK.
However, Corden has faced several delays in securing permission to proceed with the project
Planning experts said an archeological survey was needed to ensure no ancient artifacts were destroyed when the house is rebuilt
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.
James Meek, of HCUK Group on behalf of Atlantic Swiss Agency (ASA), created a report, which looked into a 1km site surrounding the comedian’s land.
The report detailed a handful of nearby sites of interest, including 17 early Mesolithic flint fragments found on a haulage site 385m northeast of the northern boundary, further early Neolithic flints from Park Place and Aspect Park Golf Course 440m north and two Neolithic flint blade flakes found in a Roman ditch during excavation on the northern edge of the site.
Ditches and postholes and a possible enclosure representing Roman settlement remains were discovered 200m east from the northeast boundary, with some of the Roman ditches containing Iron Age pottery shards, suggesting a prehistoric predecessor.
Middle to Late Iron Age features dating from 500 BC, including postholes, two storage and rubbish pits and lines possibly representing field boundaries were identified during archaeological investigations at several locations around 350 to 400m east and southeast of the eastern boundary.
Meanwhile an area of early Iron Age occupation was identified in a 1995 excavation close to Remenham Hill, just under 1km north.
A Roman road linking Dorchester-on-Thames with the Roman town of Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) crossed the Thames at nearby Henley-on-Thames, passing not far from Corden’s land.
There is believed to be evidence of prehistoric human occupation nearby, as well as artifacts from the Roman era through to the Saxon era and even as far as the 12th century.
Experts do not believe there will be anything of significance in the area which has already been developed, but they expect to find evidence of Roman, Saxon and even prehistoric life on part of the parcel of land
The property even contains this stone circle which was given to a previous owner by the people of Jersey
One site, 270m north east of the development was occupied from the 1st-4th centuries, experts said.
Twelfth century pottery has been found nearby as well as a late Saxon spearhead dredged from the Thames.
The wealth of artifacts close to the new home may delay plans, but Mr Meek said it was unlikely anything of value would be discovered on the planned house site itself.
‘The potential for encountering Roman activity within the majority of the site is considered to be low due to the topography of the site and terracing works undertaken for the former Victorian building,’ he said.
However he added: ‘There may be a moderate potential for Roman remains on land alongside the southern boundary close to Wargrave Road, which follows the course of a Roman road.’
The former Late Late Show host quit the US after eight years and returned to the UK, despite apparently being offered a massive £40m deal to stay on.
He blamed ‘health things’ for quitting, and returned with wife Julia Carey and their three kids last year.
Corden bought £8.5m Templecombe House in Remenham, Berkshire, while still in the US.
It is a mid 1960s four-bed circular shaped home with a separate pool house which has fallen into disrepair, with windows boarded up and long grass on what were once lawns.
It also includes a Grade II-listed Druid’s temple, gifted to the once-owner of a house that stood on the same site, in 1788.
The prehistoric stone-built monument was discovered near St Helier in Jersey, and was presented to General Conway by the residents of Jersey upon his retirement as governor.
He re-erected it on the estate during his period of ownership of Park Place, eventually earning it the name Templecombe.
Wokingham Borough Council’s planning committee unanimously approved the demolition of the existing house and its replacement with a two-storey five-bedroom mansion last January.
Official approval was given seven months later after legal hurdles were completed.
Corden’s plans show the ground floor will have an entrance hallway opening off a large internal courtyard, a kitchen, living room, dining room and breakfast room leading onto a large terrace area with a playroom, two study areas, three bathrooms and a boot room.
The first floor will have five ensuite bedrooms – with the luxurious main bedroom having two ensuites and a balcony.
It will also have a cloakroom, a laundry and two internally facing balconies.
The star is hoping to replace the swimming pool as part of his luxury redevelopment
To complete his plans, Corden, 45, will also widen the existing driveway and add landscaping – creating a partially walled garden.
He also plans to retain the property’s tennis courts.
Meanwhile plans for a replacement two-storey pool house will have to be resubmitted after concerns were raised about the building’s proximity to the Druidic circle.
The five archeological trenches that will be dug will be on the site of the proposed new pool house and within the footprint of the new house.
The project will be monitored on behalf of the local planning authority by Berkshire Archaeology.
Mr Meek added: ‘Any archaeological deposits will be examined and recorded both in plan and section.
‘At this stage it is intended to only partially excavate features so as to ascertain their extent, form, function and if possible date.
‘Should significant archaeological deposits be encountered that are worthy of preservation in situ, excavation will cease.’