What rotten luck!

Stately home’s caretaker sacked for giving away carving ‘riddled with rot’ that’s worth £5MILLION

‘It was less rubbish for me to get rid of’

FOR 460 years it had pride of place above the fireplace, admired by guests of the Tudor stately home.

But the value of this £5million historic artefact was lost on one man: the caretaker who was sacked after accidentally giving it away for nothing.

Brian Wilson was fired from the Grade IIlisted, 16th-century mansion in Stafford after bosses found he had let a car dealer walk off with the antique, a tribunal heard.

Mr Wilson, who lived in a caravan on the grounds, claimed the 9ft-wide oak overmantel was ‘rotten’ and was going to be disposed of anyway. But auctioneers have since valued the antique, which bears the royal coat of arms of Queen Elizabeth I, at between £1.9million and £5million, saying it is in ‘excellent condition’.

Mr Wilson took his employers to a tribunal claiming he had been unfairly dismissed from his job at Seighford Hall, which had stood derelict for two decades. It has since been bought by a private firm that plans to turn it into a luxury hotel.

The tribunal heard car dealer Andrew Potter, 54, visited the hall as a prospective buyer and was permitted to rummage around the ‘fire pile’. He was allowed to take away ‘a decorative piece of wood’, which Mr Wilson described as being ‘riddled with wood worm and dry rot’. He said: ‘I let him have it, as far as I was concerned it was less rubbish for me to get rid of.’

Though this antique was accidentally handed over, the tribunal heard Mr Wilson had sold other items on the property without permission, including fireplaces, which

Mr Wilson denies. He was invited by the hall’s managing director to a meeting concerning the items, but he did not attend. He was sacked in November 2020 for gross misconduct, but did not hear about this until February 2021.

Employment Judge Kate Hindmarch ruled he was unfairly dismissed as he had not been made aware of the decision to fire him.

She awarded him £4,065.82, but ruled he was not entitled to any additional compensation.

The overmantel was due to be sold at auction by Mr Potter last August, but the sale was called off after the council took out an injunction, which was discontinued in December. Mr Potter’s family would not comment on the whereabouts of the overmantel.