Anger as Pippa evicts tenants from new £15m country estate
THE decorations may now be down and the trees disposed of, but for tenants at Pippa Middleton and James Matthews’s £15 million country estate this has been the last Christmas any of them will spend in their current homes.
I can disclose that they were served with eviction notices before festivities got under way — and have greeted them with dismay and anger. Some tenants have rented their homes from the Berkshire estate for decades.
‘We’ve been told we’ve got to get out, so we’ve got to get out, haven’t we?’ one disgruntled tenant tells me.
He adds that this cannot be equated with the ending of a short-term rental agreement. ‘We’ve been on this estate for 40 years. My mum and dad also live down the road. They’ve been told they can stay — for the moment — but I have to move. We rented all these outbuildings, too, so I’m clearing them out now. Forty years of stuff.’
Distressing though the upheaval is for those who are leaving their homes, they are aware that there is one group of residents for whom the eviction could prove especially upsetting. These are the occupants of a registered children’s home which offers a healing environment for those who have experienced trauma.
Carers confirm that they have been given notice, but refrain from further comment. One of their neighbours assures me that the children’s home has had a tenancy for ‘many years’.
A friend of Pippa and James confirms that the tenants have been served with eviction notices, but claims that the children’s home received its order to leave last summer, before the couple took ownership of the estate. ‘They want the estate to be a family property,’ the pal explains.
Another local tells me that, even before eviction notices were issued, it was clear that change was under way at the estate, which the Princess of Wales’s sister, 39, and her investment banker husband, 47, bought last year.
Last week, I revealed they were installing a mammoth pool in what had been a wonderful kitchen garden, as well as adding a tennis court.
‘You used to be able to walk into the grounds, but not since they bought it,’ the local alleges. ‘They’ve put up more signs and CCTV. It’s all kept hushhush. We don’t see them around.’
Nevertheless, the couple’s influence is keenly felt, with residents alleging that all fishing on the estate is now private whereas, in the era of the previous owners, some streams had been publicly accessible. A friend insists there is still public access from Monday to Thursday.
Another local adds that anyone straying a yard or two off a public footpath to pick blackberries risks reprimand from a gamekeeper. ‘It seems unfair when you’re not causing any damage,’ he tells me. ‘It’s a bit over the top. Wasn’t like that before.’
But perhaps Pippa and James will derive some satisfaction from the rueful observation of one departing tenant. ‘They’ve done everything by the law,’ he says. ‘But money talks, doesn’t it?’