How Ed Sheeran spent a HUGE £3.7m to end war with Suffolk neighbours after rows over building work
WHEN you are a pop megastar and the neighbours complain about your ever-growing luxury pad, there’s only one thing to do.
Keep snapping up their surrounding houses.
Superstar Ed Sheeran has faced a barrage of objections over grandiose schemes for “Sheeranville”, his sprawling £3.7million complex of five homes — including swimming pool, two-storey treehouse and pub — in the Suffolk town he grew up in.
The final home was added in 2019 when he paid £875,000 to buy out next-door neighbour Sharon Jest, who had often objected to his ongoing construction work.
She had insisted “enough was enough” when he applied to build a 32ft chapel in the 16-acre grounds.
A neighbour in the town of Framlingham — which has a population of 3,342 and an average house price of £400,000 — said: “Ed paid over the odds for the new place, but he can afford it.”
Ed, who is worth £160million, is deeply connected to the picturesque market town.
It was the inspiration for his 2017 hit Castle On The Hill and it was where he met wife and childhood sweetheart Cherry Seaborn, 30, at Thomas Mills High School.
He even gave the school’s 1,100 pupils free tickets for one of his homecoming Ipswich gigs.
He also donates clothes and memorabilia to a charity shop the main square, which sees fans from round the world come to buy items such as his baseball hat, £150, Ben Sherman jumper, £250, and tour jacket, £300.
Ed, 31, previously went for a drink with grime star Stormzy, 29, at his local, The Station Hotel.
He has also taken superstar Taylor Swift and Pussy Cat Doll Nicole Scherzinger to the wood-floored pub, where they agreed to pose for selfies with astonished locals.
But as with any small town, passions run high when planning disputes emerge.
The Sun revealed that Ed objected to plans by neighbours to build two new homes in a paddock close to Sheeranville in 2017.
A planning consultant wrote to Suffolk Coastal District Council on Ed’s behalf complaining the proposal would “arguably extend the village in an unplanned and superficial way into the countryside”.
Ed’s parents Imogen and John, who live locally, also objected to the proposal, which was later withdrawn.
Since then there have been a flurry of objections to Ed’s own plans to expand his country pile.
These include complaints from neighbour Tony Robinson — one of the applicants to build the homes that Ed objected to in 2017.
Tony, 75, and seven other locals objected to plans by Ed to build an Anglo Saxon-style chapel, in which he wanted to marry Cherry.
The Shape Of You singer said some of his guests had “high profiles” and there would be a “need for discretion” which could not be met at the local parish church.
Ed added that he wanted to build the flint chapel as a “retreat for contemplation and prayer”.
Tony wrote to planners saying building work could disturb protected great crested newts, a favourite topic for protesters wanting to halt rural development.
In March 2018, Tony complained to the council: “It would appear that the applicant in his desire to satisfy the needs of the spiritual world continues to overlook his obligations to the living world, particularly that of protected species.”
And Sharon, then in the house next door to Ed, wrote in her objection: “Over the last few years there has been and continues to be significant development of this site.
“As neighbours we have been accepting of this and the disruption it has caused but feel enough is enough.”
Plans for the chapel were thrown out and Ed ended up marrying Cherry at a local church.
Land Registry records show that Ed bought his main home — a detached farmhouse and surrounding land — for £895,000 in June 2012.
He also snapped up a 16th century Grade II listed timber-framed house next door for £450,000 at around the same time.
Ed bought the four-bedroom detached house in front of his farmhouse for £925,000 in September 2016.
He splashed out on his fourth Suffolk property in October 2017 when he bought the bungalow on the other side of his driveway for £525,000.
Then in April he purchased Sharon’s home next door.
Sharon had complained to council planners in 2013 about Ed’s proposals for a treehouse, saying it would “rise above the existing hedge and look directly into our property”.
Ed withdrew the plans before re-submitting them a year later, when they passed.
In January 2017 Ed was granted planning permission to build a wildlife pond.
But when a jetty and steps were installed, neighbours suspected the haven was more for the benefit of Ed than newts and frogs.
A year later, he was forced to apply to keep these “landscape features” — and several neighbours objected.
Tony wrote that he feared the pond was more about creating an environment for a “wild lifestyle” rather than actual “wild life”.
Neighbours Kenny and Carol Cattee added that they already had “cause to complain about loud music being played from the location” and feared the pond was primarily for swimming.
But in October 2018, Ed was permitted to keep his pond extras.
It emerged he had erected a wall of hay bales to stop neighbours peeking at the pond.
“It’s never ending,” one neighbour said of Ed’s building work. “We have to live with the constant din.
“It’s not surprising he’s ruffled a few feathers locally.”
Neighbour Tony, a retired fertiliser company boss, has now come to terms with the pop star’s building work.
He told The Sun this week: “I was concerned about the wildlife but I’m happy now. It’s so dry everywhere that the newts are using his pond.
“Ed’s a good local lad who supports his old school mates who are doing work at the site.
“My granddaughter loves his music and I’m not annoyed by the building work. I’m just amazed he has got so much money to spend.”
Ed, at No1 in both the album and singles charts this week, scored a planning victory in June when East Suffolk Council granted him retrospective planning permission to keep two signs put up for his pub dedicated to his wife.
He had previously been ordered to remove a 16ft banner and a smaller hanging sign reading “The Lancaster Lock”.
County councillor Christopher Hudson, 64, believes the planning complaints against Ed are “a generational thing”.
He added: “He’s a young man who’s made a fortune and kept it as local as he can, and that little green-eyed monster jealousy flies out.
“He may have infringed planning rights but cut him a bit of slack. He is putting social capital into Fram through his charities and I’m applauding that.
“To think he’s floating around a little place like this is good. It’s not like he’s deserted and jumped ship out to some tax haven.”
Ed admitted earlier this month that his crippling anxiety was the reason he moved back to Suffolk.
He said: “If I lived in central London and hung out with people, I wasn’t sure if they were friends with me because of me, or who I am. That’s why I moved here.”
Now, Ed claims, his private lifestyle in Framlington, combined with wife and close-knit group of friends, is helping him to heal.
He said: “All of these things are in place to protect my mind and it’s working, I think.”
Framlington is fiercely proud of its most famous son, who attracts fans from across the globe to walk in his footsteps.
At the St Elizabeth Hospice charity shop I tried on some of the authenticated Sheeran clothing — including baseball cap and tour jacket — he donates there.
Shop manager Rachail Pollard, 67, said: “We’ve had fans from as far away as New Zealand, Canada and Asia come in and buy Ed’s stuff.
“We’ve raised over £100,000 for the hospice selling his memorabilia.” Ed still pops into his favourite chippy, the Fram Fish Bar, where he loves large cod and chips at £8.20 with lots of salt and vinegar.
Boss Inci Kormatz, 39, said: “He’s a lovely guy, really down to earth.”
A barmaid at The Station Hotel — where Ed signed his recording contract and had his 21st birthday — added that fame “hasn’t changed him”.
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Locals said he still queues to get his drinks like everyone else.
Ex-film industry worker Chris Bannister, 57, who lives close to Ed, summed it up.
“Everyone here loves him. He’s got loads of money and he could live anywhere — but this is his place, which I think is quite nice.”
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