Duchess of Wellington dragged into property war

SHE’S the BBC’s most highly paid female star, but even Strictly Come Dancing’s Claudia Winkleman has her off days. ‘I’m having a mid-life crisis right now and have been looking of ways to stay young,’ jokes Winkleman, 46, who receives up to £500,000 from the Corporation. ‘So I decided to go a bit mad and have an ombre hair-do and get the tips of my hair bleached. It was either that or get a tattoo.’

WATCH out for the new battle of Waterloo! The Duchess of Wellington and Lord Waldegrave, Provost of Eton College, have found themselves embroiled in a High Court action.

They are being sued by the owners of a cottage in Hampshire who claim they are being blocked in their bid to develop their freehold property which they appear to have bought in 2015.

The cottage owners won planning consent in January for a two-storey extension to their £500,000 home, Yew Tree Cottage, in Stratfield Turgis, on the Duke of Wellington’s resettled estate. However, they were surprised when they were unable to go ahead because of a restrictive covenant affecting the property.

The couple, Neil and Delia Gilbert, have now gone to the court saying permission has been unreasonably withheld by the trustees, who include former Tory Cabinet minister Waldegrave and the Duchess of Wellington, to go ahead with their scheme.

The cottage is affected by a legal clause made in 1976 banning all future owners from building works at the house, without the trustees’ consent. A similar clause bans the occupiers from killing, damaging or maiming any game at the property as well.

The Gilberts are also seeking a declaration that the covenant only stops them from erecting a new building and not from putting up an extension to the existing cottage.

A mother of five, the Duchess of Wellington was originally known as HRH Princess Antonia of Prussia before marrying Charles Wellesley, the 9th Duke of Wellington, and taking his name.

She was awarded an OBE in 2008 for services to social housing for her work as President of the Guinness Trust.