CAMPAIGNERS secured a High Court injunction yesterday to halt construction work at Cherkley Court.
The papers were received by developer Longshot last night, after work began on some areas of the Leatherhead site.
The injunction also stops any further work until a judicial review of the planning decision to allow a luxury hotel and golf course to be built is heard by the High Court, which is expected to be in late April.
Residents' group the Cherkley Campaign, supported by the Surrey branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), applied to the High Court for the judicial review last September.
"We were given assurances that they would not start in the spring, and that no work would be done before the judicial review comes to court," said CPRE Surrey branch director Andy Smith.
"The Cherkley Campaign has now got a court injunction, so that will have halted them from working this (Wednesday) morning. It stops them for now and we will have to wait and see what their response is."
Mole Valley District Council granted planning permission to Longshot to build on the historic estate in April last year.
Company spokesman Nick Kilby said: "We acknowledge that this order has been served but we have no comment on the legal implications on the construction at this time."
Lord Beaverbrook used to entertain the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill at Cherkley Court.
During the Second World War the house was also an important centre for Lord Beaverbrook's activities as Minister for Aircraft Production and a key member of Churchill's War Cabinet.
Lord Beaverbrook died at Cherkley Court in 1964 at the age of 85, upon which his son Max Aitken bequeathed the house, but not the estate, to the Beaverbrook Foundation.
The foundation bought the estate in 1998, before it was bought by the Longshot Country Club Company in April 2012.
The papers were received by developer Longshot last night, after work began on some areas of the Leatherhead site.
The injunction also stops any further work until a judicial review of the planning decision to allow a luxury hotel and golf course to be built is heard by the High Court, which is expected to be in late April.
Residents' group the Cherkley Campaign, supported by the Surrey branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), applied to the High Court for the judicial review last September.
"We were given assurances that they would not start in the spring, and that no work would be done before the judicial review comes to court," said CPRE Surrey branch director Andy Smith.
"The Cherkley Campaign has now got a court injunction, so that will have halted them from working this (Wednesday) morning. It stops them for now and we will have to wait and see what their response is."
Mole Valley District Council granted planning permission to Longshot to build on the historic estate in April last year.
Company spokesman Nick Kilby said: "We acknowledge that this order has been served but we have no comment on the legal implications on the construction at this time."
Lord Beaverbrook used to entertain the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill at Cherkley Court.
During the Second World War the house was also an important centre for Lord Beaverbrook's activities as Minister for Aircraft Production and a key member of Churchill's War Cabinet.
Lord Beaverbrook died at Cherkley Court in 1964 at the age of 85, upon which his son Max Aitken bequeathed the house, but not the estate, to the Beaverbrook Foundation.
The foundation bought the estate in 1998, before it was bought by the Longshot Country Club Company in April 2012.
