There are fewer than 200 residents in this picturesque parish in rural Northamptonshire, where the gardens of thatched cottages are blooming with spring snowdrops and primroses.
There is no pub, no shop, no village Post Office; just a winding country road along which you’ll meet an occasional local walking their dog or riding their horse.
If you’re really lucky (a sentiment not every villager shares), you might come across the parish’s very own celebrity: the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, who keeps 14 horses at her sprawling farmhouse in the village.
Geri, 51, and her husband Christian Horner, 50, the boss of the Red Bull Formula 1 team, own a Grade II-listed former vicarage worth £1.6 million in this idyllic spot, and have been splitting their time between this property, a home in North London and another pile in Hertfordshire for almost a decade.
Christian bought it in the 2000s and today it’s a country retreat for their blended family: he, Geri, their seven-year-old son, Monty, Christian’s daughter Olivia, ten, and Geri’s daughter Bluebell, 18.
The singer’s social media portrays an enviably wholesome and bucolic family life here: Geri is pictured tending to the horses, goats and donkeys; cuddling her chickens; knocking up a peach crumble in the Aga; and even honing her skills on a vintage sewing machine.
The couple’s home at the centre of the pool row in rural Northamptonshire
Geri and Christian Horner’s marriage been under intense scrutiny after a tumultuous few months in which Christian was accused — and subsequently cleared — of ‘inappropriate behaviour’
But beyond the wrought-iron gates and stone walls that protect the property from prying eyes, it’s a somewhat different story.
Not only has the couple’s marriage been under intense scrutiny after a tumultuous few months in which Christian was accused — and subsequently cleared — of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ towards a female employee (who is appealing the decision), but now a spat with their neighbours is threatening to blight their tranquil country existence.
At the root of it all is a planning application, in which the pair propose to build an outdoor swimming pool — 40ft by 16ft, with a deep end of 6ft — in the grounds of their country home, along with a fountain, decorative topiary and surrounding sun-loungers.
The plans, drawn up by Oxford-based Riach Architects, went under the radar when they were lodged on January 2, days after Christian had been named in the New Year Honours List for services to motor sport.
The mansion has a rustic office, boasting a vintage world map with a view of their garden
The Horners’ stunning property boasts stunning views and acres of land for their horses and donkey’s to roam about
Geri often shares glimpses of their gardens, greenhouses, indoor swimming pools and vintage kitchen on Instagram
Their mansion has a boating lake, stunning interiors, acres of land and plenty of farm animals
They were accompanied by letters of support from the parish council and conservation office.
But a series of strongly worded objections from irate neighbours has since appeared on the local council website, suggesting that not everyone is quite so content for the Horners’ lavish plans to go ahead.
The main bone of contention is the location of the proposed pool, which would be just over the boundary wall and directly across the road from the 13th-century church and graveyard.
‘It would be the height of disrespect to be standing in the churchyard during an internment, to be distracted by screaming, shouting and splashing from a short distance away,’ writes one objector.
‘This is a tiny but particularly beautiful village in a rural community with its own cricket team. I request that the peace of the area is preserved as it is now, so that locals and visitors can continue to enjoy a village that they chose for its beauty and peacefulness.’
Another angry neighbour writes: ‘This end of the village is a conservation area and buildings are listed. It has historically been a peaceful and quiet part of the village.’
This local also objects to the installation of a red telephone box, which the Horners reportedly had winched into their garden last year.
‘[It is] visible over the wall and can be seen from the road,’ the complaint reads. ‘It is out of place and its colour does not fail to catch the eye.’
Of course, some will regard all this as ocean-going Nimbyism and mean-spirited nit-picking.
But village gossip is a virulent thing and there is little else on the lips of locals this week.
After all, it is not often that controversy comes to roost in this serene spot — far less one that makes national headlines.
Though their names have been redacted on the council website, the Mail tracked down one of the objectors to the Horners’ swimming pool plan and spoke to them at their home.
Geri, pictured with Monty when he was younger, picking raspberries in their garden
Geri and her husband Christian, the boss of the Red Bull Formula 1 team, have been making plans at the Grade II-listed former vicarage worth £1.6 million
Back when she was known as Halliwell, Geri with her Spice Girls bandmates at the Brits in 1997
Geri was known as Ginger Spice at the height of the girl group’s powers in the 1990s
‘They do whatever they like,’ the villager (who didn’t want to be named) says of Geri and her husband, whom she married in 2015.
‘They replaced a lean-to with a giant greenhouse and now they want a swimming pool on the other side of the wall.
‘They have so much land where they could put it, but they chose to put it as close to their neighbours and the church as they could go. There will be noise pollution from the pump to heat the pool and noise pollution from people jumping in and out, [as well as] children screaming. We don’t want that.
‘When everyone else in the village has plans to float, they have to put up a notice [outside the property] announcing their intention and keep it up for six weeks.
‘I have not seen the Horners do that. We actually found the planning officer doing this for them — sticking the notice about the swimming pool to a telegraph pole.’
One might think that Geri and Christian would be adept at navigating the planning process by now.
After all, Christian has made no fewer than 38 planning applications for the property and its gardens since 2007, including building a tennis court, an orangery and indoor swimming pool.
Since Geri moved in, there have been another five. In 17 years, only one — an application to build a dry-stone wall in place of a fence — has been refused.
The neighbour whom the Mail spoke to this week alleges there is ‘favouritism’ being shown by the council towards the celebrity couple.
The loved-up couple’s pad, which includes a farm, is worlds away from the Red Bull boss’s humble childhood village
The former Spice Girl stood resolutely by her husband’s side throughout the ‘inappropriate behaviour’ allegations – which he always denied
‘I rang up the planning officer who happened to tell me he was a petrolhead and a massive fan of Formula 1,’ they said.
‘We know people in the village who have made small alterations to their gardens and had to jump through hoops to get approval from the council.
‘In some cases it takes 18 months, but when the Horners do anything it is waved through in a matter of weeks, even if it is retrospective approval.’
The villager insists they used to have a good relationship with Geri and Christian, but things have soured due to the couple’s ‘disrespect’ of the area.
When the family are in residence (for weeks at a time, mostly during school holidays), there are often large gatherings which have rubbed some locals up the wrong way.
There was an opulent party for Geri’s 50th birthday in 2022, and the couple host one to mark the British Grand Prix every year — after all, Silverstone is not too far away.
Others report seeing helicopters landing on or near the property. In 2022, the couple enjoyed a ‘date night’ helicopter flight to Glastonbury Festival.
Though they may not live there permanently, their presence seems hard to miss.
‘They have floodlights on every corner of the house and it obliterates the night sky,’ one neighbour complains. ‘It’s like Colditz.
‘As a keen astronomer, I can tell you there are no stars to be seen when they are at home.’
Not everyone feels quite so hostile towards their starriest residents, however.
Indeed, amid a chorus of birdsong and the distant hum of mowers on a spring afternoon in the village this week, there were plenty of residents willing to voice their support — and give their names to the Mail.
Ina Fox, 45, a brand strategist who lives down the road from the Horners, says the complainants are simply ‘jealous’.
‘If they want to improve their home and make it better and build something to give them pleasure, then what is the problem?’ she asks.
‘They are preserving an old building and adding to it for future generations.
‘I have been in the village for six years and I don’t know if there has been a funeral in that time, so the chances of their swimming pool disrupting one seems very slim to me.’
Neighbour Camilla Arthur, 60, agrees. ‘I have found them to be very friendly,’ she says.
‘I’ve been round for supper. They are absolutely lovely. I can’t believe anyone has complained. It’s not like they are proposing a 50-metre pool that will be seen from far and wide. No one will know this is there.
‘And this is Britain — there will probably be only five days in the year when you’d want to use an outdoor pool.’
Another neighbour, a 41-year-old woman who didn’t want to be named, describes Geri and Christian as ‘simply the best neighbours that you could wish to have’.
‘They are very thoughtful people,’ she adds. ‘They turn up at all the village celebrations and show their faces — they don’t have to do that.
‘When they do throw parties, they give hampers from
Fortnum & Mason to all the near neighbours to compensate for any noise.’
A resident of a Jacobean mansion on the other side of the church, owned by descendants of the Duke of Wellington, brands the planning objections ‘absolute nonsense’.
‘There are four other outdoor swimming pools in the village, and ours is only 20 yards from the church door — even closer than the Horners’,’ he says.
‘My children play in it every day in the summer and we’ve never had any issue with noise.’
Of his famous neighbours, he insists: ‘I have never heard a bad word from anyone in the village about them. This is their second home . . . they are good, community people and very friendly.’
But this isn’t the first time Geri and Christian have found themselves on the wrong side of some locals as they renovate their house — something Christian has described as his ‘hobby’.
In 2022, they made headlines after they built a barn for Geri’s horses, for which the council granted part-retrospective planning permission — despite, villagers alleged, staunch opposition. The barn, which replaced a previous structure, was described in letters of complaint to the council as ‘hideous’ and was said to obstruct mobile phone signals in the area.
Neighbours claimed the couple had re-routed public footpaths to suit their needs, installed gates that were out of keeping with the approved style, and described their horses as ‘a menace on the footpaths to the public’.
Then, as now, the council was accused of showing ‘favouritism’ towards the Horners.
One resident asked, in a letter of complaint: ‘What is it with this council — do they cave in to the rich because they don’t have money to fight them in court?’
Another said: ‘Don’t the council care of the favouritism being shown to the wealthy here? Unacceptable.’
The former Ginger Spice is not unfamiliar with these sorts of accusations.
In 2007, before she met Christian, she had a fallout with residents of her leafy London street after building a 12ft brick wall around her £4 million house.
She had planning permission for the structure, but locals were up in arms, describing it as a ‘monstrosity’ that made her house ‘look like a prison’.
Perhaps, having been through all this before, planning objections — and the accompanying local furore — are just water under the bridge.
After all, having a celebrity couple, with a reported joint fortune of £50 million, among your inhabitants can be no bad thing for a small parish like this.
Villager numbers have fallen by 10 per cent since the 2001 census — and there’s no draw like that of an A-lister in residence, particularly one prepared to spend, spend, spend.
There are no costs listed in the latest plans, but the average fee for building an outdoor swimming pool is up to £150,000 — surely a boon for local trade and construction companies.
The overseeing council said it was unable to make detailed comments on an ongoing application, but that all relevant factors would be considered before making a decision.
A spokesperson added: ‘All planning applications are assessed and determined on their own merits in line with local planning policy.’
Riach Architects did not respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives of Geri or Christian Horner. To date, they have not spoken about the plans.
With the gates of the Horner house firmly shut this week, the couple did not appear to be at home — although with the Easter holidays now in full swing, they may yet make an appearance.
If they do drop by, locals will be eagerly awaiting an update on the swimming pool furore — and perhaps a delivery of one of those posh hampers to make up for all the fuss.