A MILLIONAIRE who says ancient flagstones were unlawfully taken from his Upton-upon-Severn estate by the previous owners is fighting to get them back.

Hugh Taylor paid £3.15m for Eastington Hall in 1997, but discovered that valuable York paving stones had been removed by Baroness Hamer of Alford and her husband.

He claims about 282 square yards of the "beautiful" stones disappeared from part of the estate, known as the "dog garden."

In November last year, Judge Rupert Bursell QC, sitting at Swindon County Court, ruled Baroness Hamer and her husband liable to pay Mr Taylor damages which have yet to be assessed.

But Oliver Ticciati, for Mr Taylor, argued last month in the Appeal Court that the judge should have gone further and made the Hamers return the flagstones and pay for their reinstallation.

The barrister told Lord Justice Sedley, who was hearing the case at London's Court of Appeal with Lady Justice Arden and Mr Justice Wall, that Mr Taylor first viewed the mansion in February, 1997.

Beautiful

He noted the "very old and beautiful" flagstones in the dog garden, and commented they would be ideal for holding open-air Shakespearian plays, before buying the house by contract dated May 29, 1997.

But, unbeknown to him, the Hamers had instructed their estate manager to dig up the flagstones on the weekend of May 3 to 5, 1997.

It was not until Mr Taylor was touring the 300-plus acre estate two years later that he realised what had happened.

"Judge Bursell ought to have found that, under the contract, Mr Taylor was entitled to have conveyed to him the flagstones," said Mr Ticciati.

He added that ordering the Hamers - "whose conduct doesn't invite sympathy" - to only pay damages would not solve the problem as the flagstones were "irreplaceable."

"The stones are far beyond anything that anybody can really supply in the market place," said Mr Ticciati. After a day-long hearing, the Appeal Court judges reserved a decision until a later date.