Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
The comfiest cows in the kingdom
Her Majesty’s beloved herds sleep on waterbeds and she can watch her horses in their stables on CCTV, as the Countryfile team found when they went behind the scenes on her estates
They are her most faithful friends. They don’t fawn or disappoint; they don’t talk back or embark on scandalous extra-marital affairs. That the Queen adores animals is no surprise, but just how much is one of the key messages of an insightful new three-part Countryfile special.
The BBC show, which has long been a favourite of the Royal Family (Prince Charles presented its 25th birthday edition five years ago), was granted unprecedented access to the grounds and myriad animals inhabiting the three places the Queen calls home: Windsor, Balmoral and Sandringham.
At Windsor Castle, her main residence (Buckingham Palace being very much a workplace), where Harry and Meghan will marry today, the dairy cows sleep on waterbeds and are milked and brushed by robots. At Balmoral, where she spends every summer, her favourite black Highland bull is called Smurf, and she is called every time a new foal is born. And at Sandringham, the Norfolk mansion where she winters, her stables have had CCTV installed so she can keep an eye on her beloved horses wherever she is in the world, using a computer or smartphone.
That she loves corgis and horses we know; more surprising is that she is a champion pigeon racer and hunt dog trainer, and a keen bird watcher. ‘I often wonder that if she hadn’t been queen she would have been a great farmer’s wife,’ her Windsor head groom Terry Pendry tells the show. ‘She adores the countryside and there’s not much she doesn’t know about it.’
The countryside life of the Queen is far less explored than the formal image of the monarch. ‘She has a huge passion for the countryside and farming too,’ says Countryfile’s Adam Henson, one of the main presenters of the royal special. He looks at what an innovative farmer the Queen is, combining ancient knowledge with the most up-to-date machinery.
At Windsor, she has opened up a vineyard for the first time in nearly nine centuries on the estate, producing sparkling wine. The show also reveals how the castle uses renewable energy, harnessing the power of water in the nearby Thames to create enough electricity for the entire castle. At Sandringham she has a commercial black- currant crop, has planted thousands of trees and created ten wetlands for migrating birds, overlooked by hides.
Yet she also reveres the old ways, almost single-handedly saving two species. The Cleveland Bay packhorse, with distinctive black legs and tail, was heading towards extinction until the
Queen saw one at the Royal Show in Windsor in the 1960s. She bought the horse and started breeding them. They are now regularly used in ceremonial shows and her husband Philip favours them for his carriage riding.
‘Now the humble packhorse is the star of the royal stables,’ says another of the show’s presenters, Anita Rani.
The Queen keeps Sussex cattle at Windsor after hearing the local breed was at risk; it was down to 6,000 breeding females. She now has the largest herd of Sussex cows in the world.
Every decision – from the name of a foal to the planting of a tree – is made by the Queen or her head ranger, Prince Philip. This includes the hitech machinery which must make the Queen’s dairy cows – some are direct descendants of Queen Victoria’s Jerseys – the most pampered bovines in the world. Their waterbeds massage away aches and pains. They step into robot-like machines when they’re ready to be milked, there are electric brushes to groom them and more robots sweep the floor gathering slurry, which is recycled as fertiliser.
Countryfile’s executive producer Bill Lyons approached the Palace when he realised the show’s 30th anniversary coincided with the 65th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. But she only appears in archive footage; the focus is on her homes and the people who work there.
‘We saw looking at her estates as a way to tap into her connection with the countryside,’ he says. ‘Our request was very warmly received.’
Each show looks at a different estate, starting with Windsor. ‘Windsor is the farming side of her life,’ says Bill. ‘It was first farmed by George III and she takes it hugely seriously.’ The episode looks at how the young Princess Elizabeth fell in love with the 5,000-acre Windsor Great Park as a young girl when it was a place her family escaped to, particularly during the Second World War. It was where she first learned to ride horses and joined the Girl Guides.
She still loves to ride around the Home Park, reveals head groom Terry Pendry, who introduces her favourite pony, Emma. ‘She has the most wonderful nature,’ he says of Emma. ‘She was a prolific winner in the show ring and is very comfortable to ride. The Queen loves her, and she loves the Queen. They chose each other.’
Windsor, which was built by William the Conqueror, is home to a stunning woodland containing one of the largest collections of ancient oak trees in northern Europe. One tree is thought to be 1,300 years old. Conservation is all; a 200-year-old beech tree which died has remained in situ since it is home to hundreds of rare beetles.
Parts of the grounds are open to the public and they attract 5 million a year. Wild spaces have been created off the beaten track where nature can flourish. Deer have been reintroduced by the Queen and a huge tree-planting scheme is underway, using ancient maps that show where trees once stood.
Balmoral is where the Queen goes to completely escape. The 50,000-acre estate in the Scottish Highlands was bought for Queen Victoria by Prince Albert and she called it, ‘my dear Paradise in the Highlands’. For her greatgreat-granddaughter it is equally dear.
She and Philip take friends, family and the odd Prime Minister for a lowkey barbecue on the estate come rain, shine or midges. ‘Prince Philip makes the food and the Queen serves the guests,’ says Balmoral housekeeper Sheena Stewart. ‘When they come to Scotland they are outside all of the
time. They never complain about the midges; they just like being outside.’
The scenery is breathtaking, from the Caledonian pine forest, home to the elusive native bird, the capercaillie, to the majestic Lochnagar mountain which the Queen used to walk up. It is also home to the incredible red deer, which are ranked depending on how many points their horns have. A royal stag has 12, a monarch of the glen has 16.
Of all the royal boltholes, the 20,000acre Sandringham estate is perhaps closest to her heart. It is where her father and grandfather died. Trees have been planted there in commemoration.
‘It is a very personal garden,’ says the Queen’s aptly named head gardener Martin Woods. ‘Most of the Royal Family have planted at least one tree. It is a garden of remembrance.’
The Queen’s own animals bring her a lot of joy too. The royal stud houses some of her racehorses, all chosen by the Queen. ‘She’s very knowledgeable about the horses,’ says Bob Rollins, the stud groom. ‘You learn quickly not to try to pull the wool over her eyes.’
The film shows how sculptor Tessa Campbell Fraser recreated one of the Queen’s favourite horses, Estimate, an Ascot Gold Cup winner. The life-size bronze sits outside the main building, where the Queen can gaze upon it.
She is also a hunt dog handler, with her favourite canine Sidney winning four championships. More surprisingly, she is a pigeon racer, a passion she inherited from her father and grandfather. In a sweet moment on the show, her loft manager Peter Farrow wells up as he discusses her involvement. ‘The Queen really loves the pigeons and it’s unbelievable what she knows about pigeons,’ he says. ‘This is one of the top breeding lofts in the world. I want to win for Her Majesty and we’ve challenged for most of the major honours.’
‘She’s had this passion for rural life since she was young and said she wanted to marry a farmer,’ says Adam Henson. ‘Away from the pomp and ceremony, she’s a countryside woman.’
Countryfile’s three-part Queen And Country series begins on Sunday 27 May at 7pm on BBC1.