Two Oxford dons have won a £200,000 row with the owners of a neighbouring hotel over a collapsed garden wall and claims its staff are 'smoking and chatting' too close to their £1.8million house. History Prof Nick Stargardt, who appeared on the BBC, and his anthropologist partner, Prof Fernanda Pirie, sued the owners of the Hawkwell House Hotel for damages after a part of the wall between the two properties gave away.
![[An aerial view of the Oxford dons' £1.8m Grade II listed home (left) and the Hawkwell Hotel (right). showing the site of the disputed wall and the hotel smoking area where the couple say staff members smoke and chat]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/92580739-14209511-An_aerial_view_of_the_Oxford_dons_1_8m_Grade_II_listed_home_left-a-88_1734609261544.jpg)
The academic couple bought their Grade-II listed six-bedroom former priory home in Oxford in 2018 and began doing it up. But renovations of their 1830s house hit a major setback in 2019 when a section of the garden wall adjoining the collapsed inwards.
![[The Priory in Iffley, Oxford, the Grade-II listed six-bedroom property owned by Professors Nick Stargardt and Fernanda Pirie]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/92578591-14209511-The_Priory_in_Iffley_Oxford_the_Grade_II_listed_six_bedroom_prop-a-87_1734609257100.jpg)
The professors claimed a buildup of soil on the hotel side had left the ground there three metres higher than theirs, causing the wall to topple under its weight, and ended up in a court battle when the hotel owners refused to accept the blame. After a trial, a county court judge last year declared the soil buildup a legal 'nuisance' and said the hotel owners would have to pay about £200,000 to the couple for the problem to be solved.
![[Hawkwell House Hotel in Iffley, Oxford, the hotel at the centre of the dispute, describes itself as 'Oxford's best kept secret']](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/92578589-14209511-Hawkwell_House_Hotel_in_Iffley_Oxford_the_hotel_at_the_centre_of-a-91_1734609313311.jpg)
But the case then went to the High Court, with the hotel owners arguing that their ground should remain at the level it is and a stronger retaining wall built — and the couple claiming that would only result in staff continuing to tower over them on the other side, 'smoking and chatting' and breaching their privacy.
![[An exterior view of the Priory, a six-bedroom home which dates back to the 1830s and is valued at £1.8m]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/19/11/92578593-14209511-An_exterior_view_of_the_Priory_a_six_bedroom_home_which_dates_ba-a-90_1734609297413.jpg)
