Pensioner passes up joining grandson to the manor born
DNA test lands young family with a Grade II listed mansion on 1,536 acres of Cornish land
STANDING outside her former council house, Barbara Binns is adamant that she could never be persuaded to move out of her humble home.
However, the 82-year-old cannot help but laugh as she concedes her grandson’s offer to rehouse her in his recently acquired £50million Grade II listed mansion is sorely tempting.
“Ever since he was a little boy we walked in the woods surrounding Penrose House,” she said, pointing towards the manor’s 1,536-acre estate a mile from her terraced home in Cornwall.
“I’m so pleased for him. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”
Her grandson is Jordan Adlard, 31, who used a DNA test to prove he was the illegitimate son of Charles Rogers, aristocratic owner of the Penrose estate who died aged 62 last August after succumbing to drug addiction. After taking up residence in the 17th century home last October, the new lord of the manor amended his birth certificate so his surname read “Adlard Rogers”. As well as a new name, he receives up to £1,000 a week as heir to the Rogers Family Trust.
Mr Rogers had a brief affair with Julie Adlard when she was about 20. The family always knew her son, who grew up mostly with his grandmother, was a Rogers.
The Telegraph can reveal that Mrs Binns took him to meet Mr Rogers after the boy, then aged eight, was told who his father was.
A close family friend said: “Jordan said he wanted to speak to his dad. His grandmother took him to the manor, knocked on the door and told Mr Rogers, ‘This is your son.’
“But Charles said he didn’t want to talk to him and slammed the door.”
Mrs Binns, however, insists her grandson’s pursuit of the truth has never been about any inheritance.
“He always wanted to prove he was a Rogers,” Mrs Binns told The Telegraph from her home in Helston. “Jordan doesn’t care about money.”
Last year Mr Adlard Rogers again wrote to Mr Rogers enclosing a DNA kit but received a reply from lawyers saying the aristocrat had passed away and so a test should be conducted.
As a result, he inherited a 50-room house that was given to the National Trust by the Rogers in 1974 in exchange for a 1,000 year-lease to keep it in the family.
Mr Rogers had inherited the estate in 2012 after the death of his father, Royal Navy veteran Lt Cdr John Peverell Rogers.
Mr Adlard Rogers, who lives with his girlfriend, Katie Hubber, and their baby, said he planned to set up a local charity.