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The campaign of harassment scuppered the sale of Jeremy Cowdrey’s £3.85m home
Paul KeoghFriday 28 November 2025 09:20 GMTComments
open image in galleryJeremy Cowdrey outside Central London County Court (Champion News)
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A neighbour who waged a campaign of harassment and "blackmail" against the son of England cricket legend Colin Cowdrey, scuppering the sale of his £3.85m home, is now facing a £500,000 bill after losing a court battle.
Film producer Jeremy Cowdrey, 65, whose father famously captained England, successfully sued his neighbour, Vanessa Gibson, over what he alleged were “lies” that made his sprawling 10-acre country house in Goudhurst, Kent, unsellable.
The dispute began when Ms Gibson purchased a strip of land that, bizarrely, included part of Mr Cowdrey's tennis court.
This escalated into what a judge found was an attempt to “blackmail” him and extract “unreasonable sums” to allow the property sale to proceed.
The case reached Central London County Court earlier this year, where Judge Jane Evans-Gordon ruled in favour of Mr Cowdrey, branding his 55-year-old neighbour’s behaviour “unreasonable and oppressive”.
But the parties were back in court again last week when the judge ordered Mrs Gibson to pick up Mr Cowdrey’s lawyers’ bills for the row, with £360,000 up front, on top of the £159,000 she still owes him in compensation ordered at the end of the trial in July.
open image in galleryCrowbourne Farm in Kent, which Mr Cowdrey bought in 2022 (Supplied by Champion News)After giving legally binding “undertakings” about how and when she can contact Mr Cowdrey in future, Mrs Gibson was told she could end up in prison if she fails to behave herself.
The court heard during the trial that Mrs Gibson has lived in the area for many years. Mr Cowdrey moved in after buying Crowbourne Farm in early 2022.
It is made up of a sprawling Grade II-listed farmhouse with its own wine cellar, a separate guest cottage, studio, barn and workshop, a quadruple car port and over 10 acres of grounds, including a tennis court, stables, woods and two lakes.
Mr Cowdrey told the judge he had been warned about the potential for trouble with his neighbour, who lives in a next-door barn conversion, before he bought it.
However, the pair initially had a good “neighbourly” relationship, with Mrs Gibson helping the cricketer's son feed his ducks.
He said he thought he could get over any problems, but that within a couple of months he realised the property was “not right” for him and decided to sell.
open image in galleryJeremy Cowdrey decided to sell the property soon after buying it (Supplied by Champion News)Viewings were arranged and buyers were found, with a sale price of £3.85m agreed, but the purchasers pulled out after a string of emails sent by Mrs Gibson.
The court heard there had previously been a dispute over ownership of the land which Mrs Gibson bought, which was settled when Mr Cowdrey agreed to fence it off and give up any claim to it, but Mrs Gibson's emails suggested the row was ongoing.
She had also emailed him, his lawyer and estate agent with allegations relating to his right to run water, electricity, sewage and phone services across her land, and brought up issues of flooding in the area, suggesting it may be down to work done by the previous owners on Mr Cowdrey's land.
Suing for malicious falsehood and harassment, Mr Cowdrey claimed his neighbour had “terrorised” him and likened her constant “clusterbomb” of complaints as akin to water torture.
“I likened it to the Japanese drip of water because it was like that,” he said. “We are on the third anniversary of this. It's been a really horrendous experience.”
Mrs Gibson, representing herself, denied Mr Cowdrey's claims and said she only raised legitimate issues about the property and that it was in fact Mr Cowdrey who behaved in an “ungentlemanly” way.
open image in galleryVanessa Gibson is facing a £500,000 bill (Champion News)But finding for Mr Cowdrey in July, the judge said the boundary dispute had been settled and that Mrs Gibson had tried to “conceal her intention ... to interfere with Mr Cowdrey’s sale”.
Her allegations that there were “ongoing disputes” in relation to the tennis court, utility services and breaches of land covenants were “false,” she continued.
“Standing back and looking at Ms Gibson’s conduct from about March 2022 through to June 2023, it seems to me that her actions were motivated by an improper purpose, namely to cause harm, specifically pecuniary loss, to Mr Cowdrey by preventing him from selling Crowbourne Farm unless he paid her any price she sought,” she said.
“I am satisfied that Ms Gibson concealed her purchase of the strip from Mr Cowdrey until she could use her ownership to extract significant payment from him.
“Ms Gibson was, of course, entitled to forward her own interests, which can include benefiting financially from her land and the covenants benefiting that land.
“But there comes a point where proper motivation tips over into an improper purpose and, in my judgment, that point was reached in this case.”
She added: “I am satisfied that Mrs Gibson’s conduct went well beyond any proper promotion of her own interests and tipped over into a form of blackmail or maliciousness.”
At trial, Mr Cowdrey said his house would now be worth £3.7m absent Mrs Gibson's allegations and so sued for the £150,000 difference between that and the £3.85m sale which he lost.
open image in galleryCrowbourne Farm is made up of a sprawling Grade II-listed farmhouse with its own wine cellar, a separate guest cottage, studio, barn and workshop, and over 10 acres of grounds (Supplied by Champion News)Agreeing, the judge said: “In my judgment, the sum of £150,000, together with interest, is the correct measure of damages.” She also awarded an additional £9,000 damages for the “oppressive and unreasonable” campaign of harassment.
Back in court on Friday, Mr Cowdrey’s barrister Brooke Lyne argued that Mrs Gibson should be made to pay his huge legal bills for the dispute, which she said ran well over £400,000.
Ruling, the judge said Mrs Gibson would have to pay the costs, with a large chunk of them assessed on the punishing “indemnity” basis due to the way she conducted the litigation.
She ordered her to shell out some of the money up front ahead of a full assessment of Mr Cowdrey's costs, telling her: “I'm going to make an order for payment on account in the sum of £300,000 - £360,000 including VAT.”
Mrs Gibson, who told the court she does not have “any money” to pay the bill, gave a series of “undertakings” as to how and when she can contact Mr Cowdrey.
open image in galleryColin Cowdrey walks out to bat for Kent in 1955 (Getty Images)Warning her of the seriousness of making such legally binding promises, the judge said: “An undertaking is the equivalent of a court order.
“If you breach it, you will be in contempt of court as if you breached an order of the court.
“Contempt of court which is established beyond reasonable doubt attracts a penalty of a fine or a period of imprisonment of up to two years.”
Jeremy Cowdrey is the second son of Colin, Lord Cowdrey, who was the first cricketer to play 100 Tests and was the first to be made a peer for his services to the game.
Lord Cowdrey was an outstanding batsman, famed for his style and nonchalance both on and off the field, with one commentator saying he seemed to “charm rather than strike the ball” and a fellow England player labelling him an “unbridled genius”.
His second son, Jeremy, worked as a City stockbroker for 20 years, later switching to working as a film producer and helping create the movie Summer in February in 2013, starring Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey fame.
Lord Cowdrey's two other sons, Chris and Graham, went on to play cricket for Kent and Chris also saw six Tests for England. He also had a daughter, Carolyn.
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