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Grade II-listed Gatcombe Park has been Anne’s home since 1976

The Princess Royal was given the house in Gloucestershire as a wedding present by the late Queen.

Jacob Freedland
Monday 24 June 2024 12:12 EDT
Gatcombe Park (Alamy/PA)
Gatcombe Park (Alamy/PA)

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Gatcombe Park has served as the Princess Royal’s country home since 1976.

The Grade II-listed house outside the village of Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire was originally constructed in 1774 but was redesigned for economist David Ricardo around 1820, according to Historic England.

The late Queen’s only daughter was given Gatcombe Park as a wedding present for her first marriage by her mother in 1976.

The park’s former owner, former Conservative home secretary Lord Butler, reportedly sold it to the late Queen for a sum that would now be worth almost £6 million.

The manor is reported to have five bedrooms, four secondary bedrooms, four reception rooms, a library, a billiard room and a conservatory.

Anne’s two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall, also have homes on the estate.

In March 2021, Zara gave birth to her baby son on the “bathroom floor” of her house on the estate.

Her husband, former England rugby player Mike Tindall, broke the news on his podcast The Good, The Bad and The Rugby, saying: “Sunday got even better because a little baby boy arrived at my house.

“Arrived very quickly. Didn’t make it to hospital. On the bathroom floor.”

The 730-acre park is not normally open to the general public, except for the first weekend of August when it hosts the annual Festival of British Eventing.

The event – which has been running for 40 years – usually attracts top equestrian Olympians and tens of thousands of spectators, but this year organisers had to call it off because increasing costs made it “unfeasible” to run.

The event’s chairman, Anne’s ex-husband Captain Mark Phillips, said in March: “Since Covid, costs, particularly insurance, have risen so much that the numbers no longer add up. It is an end of an era, the next 40 years of the sport will be different, let’s hope it can be equally special.”

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