A CADBURY heiress is selling her £27m Oxfordshire stately home to start a new chocolate firm.

Felicity Loudon has put Pusey House, near Faringdon, on the market amid anger at the company’s sale to US food giant Kraft.

She called the deal the “worst handled takeover of all time” and dismissed Kraft as a “plastic cheese company”.

The 61-year-old interior designer who is the great-great-grandaughter of John Cadbury, who founded the business in 1824, said: “I can’t accept that Cadbury has gone to America . . . to a plastic cheese company.

“I won't accept it. I want to start again. I want to make chocolate and I’m jolly well going to do it.”

She added her grandfather, George, who built the Bourneville village in Birmingham, would be “spinning in his grave.”

Mrs Loudon has lived with husband John, 74, at Pusey for 10 years.

Kraft, whose brands include Dairylea and Philadelphia cheese, took over Cadbury in an £11.9bn deal five months ago.

During the takeover, Mrs Loudon said: “I am greatly angered at the way British firms are being swallowed up by rapaciously greedy foreign companies.”

Pusey House is being jointly sold by estate agents Savills and Knight Frank.

The Grade II listed Georgian property has six reception rooms, 16 bedrooms, a billiard room, gym, gun room, wine cellar and an indoor pool.

Outside there is also a tennis court, polo ground and stables.

The 643-acre estate includes two stable flats, four cottages, livestock buildings and woodland.

It takes its name from the Pusey family, who are said to have received the property following loyal service to King Canute between 995 and 1035.

The house was built between 1746 and 1748 for John Allen Pusey and there have only been three owners since 1935.

A Knight Frank spokesman said: “Pusey is one of England’s most beautiful houses.

“Set amongst immaculate and stunning gardens and grounds, it enjoys spectacular views across the lake and on to the Downs “The gardens and grounds are nothing short of spectacular, with an ongoing, evolving programme of redesign which make them some of the finest in the country.”