James May told to rebuild ‘life-threatening steps’ at £1m cottage

The TV star hosted BBC’s Top Gear from 2003 until 2015 before moving on to Prime Video’s The Grand Tour until 2024.

Both shows saw him present alongside Richard Hammond and Oxfordshire farmer, Jeremy Clarkson, who owns both Diddly Squat Farm and The Farmer’s Dog pub locally.

The 63-year-old was in Oxford last year with his live theatre show, Explorers: The Age of Discovery, which he performed for one night only at the New Theatre.

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Now Mr May is said to be tackling a serious safety issue at his £1million rural bolthole, with architects warning that the layout of his garden steps could cause a “severe if not life-threatening injury”, according to the Daily Mail.

The 63-year-old former Top Gear presenter shares the Grade II-listed cottage in the tiny Wiltshire village of Ansty with his long-term partner, art critic Sarah Frater.

Their 18th-century home, known as Deer Cottage, was created by knocking together two former workers’ cottages in the early 1990s, and the garden is reached via a steep flight of ten stone steps behind a greenhouse.

Planning documents report that the existing staircase sits in a “precarious” position with a significant drop, and that the steepness of the route makes it “particularly dangerous” if anyone were to slip.

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To reduce the risk, Mr May’s architects have secured council consent to remodel the steps, cutting the gradient from around 52 per cent to 33 per cent and adding a handrail as well as wider, deeper treads for surer footing.

A planning officer has described the proposals as “minor domestic alterations” which will not alter the historic fabric of the Grade II-listed building itself.

Mr May and Ms Frater bought the countryside retreat for about £770,000 in 2015 and use it as a second home within walking distance of The Royal Oak, the local pub he snapped up in 2020 after years of visiting as a regular.

The presenter has previously admitted that life in Ansty – a small, affluent village of roughly 100 residents and no shop, post office or cashpoint – is a marked contrast with his long-standing base in west London.

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He said: “I like that South Wilts, where our cottage and my pub are, is still genuinely rural.

“I love the scenery and the hilliness (except when I’m on my bike). We have deer in our woods and sheep in the field opposite to talk to.

“I am much more seasonally aware now I’ve spent time there. I enjoy tractors thundering around during the harvest, and I’m on waving terms with some of the drivers.”

Mr May has mainly lived in Hammersmith since 2000, where he replaced two older buildings – including a former woodshop – with a two-storey modern home designed to accommodate his sizeable collection of cars and motorbikes.