A first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Gloucester is selling his former manor house.
Richard Gloucester, the first cousin once removed of King Charles, has put the beautiful Barnwell Manor in Northamptonshire up for sale for the highest bid over £4.75 million.
In addition to its eight-bedroom Tudor manor house, Barnwell boasts a gatehouse with twin round towers and medieval stone walls, which are all that remain of the 1266-built Barnwell Castle.
There are 40 rooms in total, including four reception areas, six toilets, and 2,500 acres of outdoor space.
The royal couple reportedly moved to Kensington Palace in 1995 because they could no longer afford to live in the enormous Grade II-listed property.
The Duke of Gloucester is selling his former Northamptonshire residence Barnwell Manor for £4.75 million.
Since 1999, the house has been home to one of Britain’s foremost antique dealers.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester are Prince Richard and his wife, Birgitte, the Duchess of Gloucester. The Duke is a relative of the late Queen; his father, Prince Henry, was King George VI’s younger brother.
This month, items from the residence were put up for sale with a staggering estimate of £1.1 million to £1.7 million.
The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, along with their children (from left to right) Alexander Windsor, Earl of Ulster, Lady Davina Windsor, and Lady Rose Gilman, resided in the estate until 1995, when maintenance costs proved prohibitive.
This enchanting site was the childhood home of the Duke and his older brother, Prince William of Gloucester, who died tragically at the age of 30 in 1972 while competing for the Goodyear International Air Trophy.
Princess Alice, the mother of the Duke, remained in Barnwell, which held a particular place in her heart, even after she was widowed two years later. Henry VIII had handed it to her family, the Montagus, and her grandfather, the sixth Duke of Buccleuch, owned it during her youth until he sold it in 1913.
Princess Alice returned to Barnwell 25 years later, when her husband — the third son of George V — purchased it for the princely sum of £37,000, utilizing a significant portion of the funds his father bequeathed him.
After the tragic loss of her older son and her husband, she found solace in the fact that her younger son, who had succeeded his father as Duke of Gloucester, and his Danish wife, Birgitte, and their three children, resided with her at Barnwell.
The Duke of Gloucester, Prince Richard, observes behind his cousin, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
A George III figured mahogany serpentine commode from the home, in the style of Thomas Chippendale, around 1770, with an estimated value between £20,000 and £30,000.
Circa 1750, an Irish George II carved mahogany centre table was estimated to sell for £30,000 to 50,000.
In 1995, however, the cost of maintaining the home became prohibitive. Instead of selling Barnwell, the Duke leased it to an antiques dealer while he and his family moved into Apartment 1 at Kensington Palace.
Despite the planned sale of Barnwell, it is thought that the Gloucesters will maintain their ties to the region.
In 2018, they relocated to a smaller Kensington Palace residence, making Apartment 1 available to Prince Harry and Meghan. The Sussexes currently reside in California, however.
Kevin Smith has collected antiques for over six decades and operated Windsor House Antiques from his home for the past 23 years.
This month, 343 objects from the mansion were put up for sale with a staggering estimate range of £1.1 million to £1.7 million.
A spokesman for the auction company Dreweatts stated, ‘What is evident is Kevin’s compulsive and passionate desire to assemble a collection that is unashamed in its breadth, depth, and obvious excellence.’
This insatiable thirst for collecting works of quality and historical significance has resulted in a profusion of objects, the result of more than six decades of experience and diligent collecting.
Ben Brown, head of sale at Dreweatts, stated, “Having admired the company and its meticulously maintained collection for many years, I am honored that Dreweatts has been entrusted with the Windsor House Antiques sale.
It provides a cross-section of the style and quality that Kevin has supplied for over sixty years, and exemplifies a passion and compulsion for beautiful things that I am certain many will identify with.