Curzon clan ‘fight National Trust for £1m family archive’
THERE are few more splendid buildings than Kedleston Hall, the Derbyshire masterpiece created by Robert Adam for the 1st Lord Scarsdale.
But behind its stately exterior — whose northern front extends for a staggering 117 yards — an ugly row is brewing.
It centres on what, I’m told, is a stark difference of opinion between the National Trust, which has been custodian of the Hall since 1987, and the Curzon family, who have been at Kedleston since the 12th century and who retain the use of a 23room wing.
‘There’s a dispute between the family and the National Trust about the Kedleston Archive, which contains God-knows-how-many documents relating to the Curzons,’ I’m told. ‘It could be worth more than £1 million. The family say it belongs to them.
‘Nobody’s had any access to it. It looks as though it’s going to be moved from Kedleston and put in the Derbyshire Record Office in Matlock.’
Derbyshire County Council tells me it has had ‘an initial approach from the National Trust’, while the charity agrees there have been ‘exploratory conversations’ with the goal of securing ‘ improved public access’. It stresses that ‘any decision would be subject to further consultation with the trustees of Kedleston Estate Trust’.
The latter safeguards the interests of the Curzon family — motto: ‘Let Curzon holde what Curzon helde’ — who continue to own the 4,000 acres surrounding the house. Richard Curzon — whose father, the 3rd Viscount Scarsdale, entrusted Kedleston to the National Trust, and who lives in the family wing — declines to comment.
But I’m told members of the family feel the charity has a distinct and seemingly hostile agenda.
Last year it posted on its website a biographical essay about the brilliant George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India and 1st and last Marquess of Curzon, which was littered with factual errors and which alleged that Curzon was motivated by ‘racist ideology’.
The subsequent outcry, including pinpoint criticism from Curzon biographer David Gilmour, obliged the Trust to remove the article and ‘check’ its content.
The family doesn’t claim to be blemish-free. ‘If the Trust wanted to be both accurate and informative, why doesn’t it have an article about Peter, the 3rd Viscount’s elder son by his first wife, a Belgian alcoholic?’ asks a critic. ‘Peter dumped his wife and daughter and went off with his favourite prostitute.’
Why not indeed?
■ AS IF Tiggy Legge-Bourke’s family hadn’t suffered enough recently, I hear firemen were called to put out a blaze at her family’s estate this week.
‘Thank you for the calls re the fire at Home Farm,’ says Tiggy’s brother Harry LeggeBourke, who runs the Glanusk Park estate near Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons, South Wales.
‘All under control and, fortunately, no livestock on site currently. Fire brigade in attendance.’ Last week, the BBC issued a grovelling apology along with a payout of around £200,000 to Tiggy, the former nanny of Princes William and Harry, after she was subjected to ‘wholly baseless’ smears by former BBC journalist Martin Bashir.
Harry Legge-Bourke, 50, a friend of the royals, has separated from Iona, his wife of 21 years, as I revealed in February.