Neighbours of south Warwickshire village church face £70k bill in row over 250-year-old tree
Neighbours of a south Warwickshire village church could face a £70,000 bill in an unholy row with their diocese - over a 250-year-old tree.
Richard and Melanie Gray were shocked to receive a letter claiming their Sycamore tree had caused damage to the nearby vicarage.
The pair are now involved in an ongoing dispute over plans to fell the landmark - known as the The Four Shire Tree - in Lower Brailes.
The Gray's land borders the Grade I-listed St George's Church in the village and the tree is 15 metres (49ft) from both their property and the vicarage.
Their home, which dates back to the 1700s, had been the original vicarage before the church divided up the land to build a new one and sold the old building.
Mr Gray said the grand tree had even been billed as a selling point for potential buyers when the couple bought The Old Parsonage in 1982.
But now the Diocese of Coventry is asking for the tree to be chopped down or a root barrier costing £70,000 will be installed.
Legal agents working for the 12th century church's insurers say it will seek to reclaim the amount from the pair.
Grandfather-of-six Mr Gray, 76, a retired inventor, said: "The irony is unbelievable.
"Here's an organisation which is supposed to have pastoral care and love thy neighbour, and then they say take this tree down or we'll charge you £70,000.
"To have a threatening letter sent out of the blue by the church doesn't seem to fit into their Christian ethos for me when they are a spiritual organisation supposedly looking out for the local community.
"And then there's the environmental impact too, the tree is 250 years old and a citadel of invertebrates, insects and animals.
"It doesn't seem to fit with the church philosophy of 'all things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small' if they are going to destroy a historic tree
"There's been no knock at the door or anyone coming around to talk about this.
"We're not going to pay and we're not going to take it down and the church are still threatening to send us this rather large bill."
The Diocese of Coventry decided to divide the plot, to create space for the new-build vicarage back in the early 1980s.
It sold the original home and its remaining garden into private ownership and the pair, who separated but remain close friends, were the second people to privately own it.
But now the diocese claims the tree's roots have caused subsidence and are demanding it is chopped down - or it will install a root barrier costing £69,768.88, plus VAT.
But in a separate report from January 2023, Mr Gray says engineers working for the diocese deemed the tree to not be at fault - blaming hot weather for the subsidence.
The affected new vicarage also suffered a burst mains pipe which flooded the property with 13,000 gallons of water daily for three days.
Mr Gray says the damage maps are all centred around the water tank - and that it's the likely culprit instead of the tree.
A Clyde & Co spokesperson said: "We are confident that our work has been carried out professionally and fairly at all times."