Duke of Gloucester puts family pile up for sale: You can snap up the late Queen’s cousin’s eight-bed Northants mansion for just £4.75m
- Barnwell Manor, a former estate of one of the Queen’s cousins, is on the market
- Duke of Gloucester moved from the Grade II-listed house in 1995 due to costs
- The 436-year-old property is now up for sale for offers above £4.75 million
The Duke of Gloucester, a first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth, is selling his former manor house – just weeks after auctioning over £1million worth of historical items.
Richard Gloucester, who is King Charles’ first cousin once removed, has put the magnificent Barnwell Manor, in Northamptonshire, on the market for the best offer above £4.75 million.
Aside from its eight-bedroom Tudor manor house, Barnwell has a gatehouse with twin round towers and ancient stone walls — the remnants of Barnwell Castle, built in 1266.
Inside, there is a total of 40 rooms including four reception rooms, six bathrooms, and 2,500 acres of outdoor space.
The royal couple lived at the sprawling Grade II-listed property but moved to Kensington Palace in 1995 after reportedly being unable to afford to live there any longer.
The Duke of Gloucester is selling his former home Barnwell Manor, in Northamptonshire, with an asking price of £4.75million
The manor has been the home of one of Britain’s leading antique dealers since 1999
Prince Richard and his wife Birgitte, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. The Duke is a cousin of the late Queen, his father Prince Henry was the younger brother of King George VI
Items from the house were put up for auction this month with an eye-watering guide price of between £1.1 million to £1.7 million
The manor was the home to the Duke And Duchess Of Gloucester and their children (left to right) Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster, Lady Davina Windsor and Lady Rose Gilman, until they moved out in 1995 after running costs became too high
This bewitching setting was the childhood home of the Duke and his older brother, Prince William of Gloucester, who died tragically aged 30 while competing for the Goodyear International Air Trophy in 1972.
The Duke’s mother, Princess Alice, who was widowed two years later, remained at Barnwell, which held a special place in her heart. It had been granted to her family, the Montagus, by Henry VIII and, in her childhood, was owned by her grandfather, the 6th Duke of Buccleuch, until he sold it in 1913.
Princess Alice returned to Barnwell 25 years later, when her husband — third son of George V — bought it for the princely sum of £37,000, using much of the money his father bequeathed him.
After the grievous loss of her elder son and her husband, she had the consolation that her younger son, who had succeeded his father as Duke of Gloucester, lived with her at Barnwell, together with his Danish wife, Birgitte, and their three children.
Prince Richard, The Duke of Gloucester looks on behind his cousin, the late Queen Elizabeth II
A George III figured mahogany serpentine commode from the house, in the manner of Thomas Chippendale, circa 1770 – worth between £20,000 to £30,000
An Irish George II carved mahogany centre table from the home, circa 1750, was tipped to sell for £30,000 to 50,000
But, in 1995, the cost of maintaining the house became too much. Rather than selling, the Duke let Barnwell to an antiques firm, while he and his family moved to Apartment 1 at Kensington Palace.
Earlier this month, 343 items from the house were put up for auction and given an eye-watering guide price of between £1.1 million to £1.7 million.
Not every item sold, but the royal couple will have still bagged themselves hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Despite Barnwell’s impending sale, it is believed the Gloucesters hope to continue their association with the area.
In 2018, they moved to a smaller property in Kensington Palace, so Apartment 1 could be used by Prince Harry and Meghan. But the Sussexes now live in California.
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