Do you guys think if Meghan was still a working royal in the UK and had a good relationship with her dad's side in the family (Doria is included as well!) do you think her family would've enjoyed the same privileges as Kate's family?
>The Princess of Wales’s brother-in-law has told an inquiry into his attempt to stop the public using a footpath across their estate that his family need enhanced security “due to their high public profile”.
>James Matthews, who is married to Kate’s sister Pippa, installed a gate across the 430-yard driveway leading to their Georgian mansion after buying the 145-acre Barton Court estate in 2022. It resulted in a furious reaction from some local residents who claim the driveway has for decades been a vital link between two other footpaths to the village of Kintbury, west Berkshire, without using a dangerous road. Pippa, 42, has been accused of suggesting her royal link justifies banning the public to protect her privacy and security.
>More than 30 walkers supported by the Ramblers’ Association successfully applied to have the route formally recognised by the local council as a public right of way in 2004 on the basis that it was freely used for 20 years required by the law. Matthews, 50, a hedge fund manager, is challenging the designation at a planning inspectorate inquiry. He paid £15.5 million for the estate which was previously owned by Sir Terence Conran, the designer, who died in 2000.
>Matthews told the inquiry in a written statement released on Friday: “Prior to moving in, I had visited the house only a few times. I did not see any members of the public using the drive on those visits. There was nothing in the conveyancing process which alerted me to any public use of the drive.
>“There are implications for my family, due to their high public profile, which means there is a need for a higher level of security than would otherwise be the case if the circumstances were different. Therefore to improve security for my family, before we moved in, I arranged for an electric security gate to be erected on the drive.” Matthews said that when the gate was installed across the driveway “no one from the parish council or the village came to speak with us, or contacted us, about the gate to say that there was any problem with it being there.” He told the inquiry that “unfortunately there has been a continued need to enhance security” and the gates were upgraded last summer and kept closed. “In the last three and a half years since I bought the house, I have seen only a handful of people, on maybe two or three occasions, walking along the drive,” he added. "Each time I have spoken to them and told them it was not a public footpath. Each time they acknowledged that it was not a footpath, and asked for permission to continue. On each occasion I gave them permission to continue, but for just that once.”
>Ken Taylor, the government-appointed planning inspector, has ruled that issues of privacy and security are outside the scope of the inquiry. The hearing continues later this month.
>One local source close to the dispute claimed villagers increasingly believe Middleton's status and royal associations have emboldened the couple's stance.
>The insider added: "There's a deep sense of resentment among some residents who feel this dispute perfectly captures what happens when extremely wealthy outsiders move into rural communities and begin reshaping them around their own priorities. Many villagers believe traditions and informal arrangements that had existed peacefully for decades are suddenly being dismissed as irrelevant because the land now belongs to people with far greater money, status, and influence."
>"Around the village, there's a growing perception that Pippa and James operate with a level of confidence that comes from being connected to the royal circle, and some locals privately feel that creates an imbalance where ordinary residents struggle to have their voices heard on equal terms." The source noted, "For many people, the argument has become about far more than just a footpath – it's about class, privilege and whether affluent landowners believe community customs should simply give way to their desire for privacy and control."
>Another resident involved in the row said: "There is a huge amount of frustration and bitterness locally because many people genuinely believed this was a route the community had informally shared and used for generations without issue.
>"Villagers feel they are now being shut out of part of the countryside that had always felt accessible to ordinary people, simply because wealthy new owners have decided they no longer want public access nearby." They continued, "For a lot of residents, this dispute has grown into something much bigger than a disagreement over a single footpath. People see it as part of a wider pattern where affluent estate owners increasingly close off rural land, citing privacy, protection, and security concerns while gradually restricting spaces that local communities historically enjoyed. Some feel social status and royal proximity are being used, whether intentionally or not, to justify turning what once felt communal into something exclusive and controlled."
>The sister of the Princess of Wales has been accused of suggesting her royal link justifies banning the public from a footpath on her country estate to protect her privacy and security. The dispute over the route through the estate owned by Pippa Middleton’s husband, James Matthews, is the subject of a public inquiry that started on Wednesday.
>Matthews, a hedge fund manager, paid £15.5 million for Barton Court in 2022. The 32-room Georgian mansion and 145-acre grounds is near the village of Kintbury in west Berkshire.
>Within weeks of the family’s arrival electric gates were installed across the driveway, which is known as Mill Lane, say residents. Signs warned “no trespassing” and “private: no public access”.
>Middleton, 42, did not accompany her husband as he attended the start of the six-day inquiry by the planning inspectorate to hear his challenge to the local council designating the driveway an official public footpath. Matthews, 50, sat at a table with his estate manager and two lawyers for the hearing in the Kintbury village sports hall.
>Some of the residents who filled all 50 public seats complained that Middleton and her husband failed to mix with the community and appeared to ride roughshod over villagers’ interests while using their royal connections to suggest they have special status.
>They claim the estate’s driveway had been used by generations of villagers and was a vital route to help walkers avoid the busy road into Kintbury. West Berkshire council designated the driveway a public right of way after the Ramblers’ Association applied for a “definitive map modification order”, saying it had been freely used for more than 20 years.
>Barton Court is 12 miles from Middleton’s childhood home in Bucklebury. It was bought after the death of the previous owner, Sir Terence Conran, the designer, in 2020.
>The estate lies to the north of Kintbury, which sits on the banks of the River Kennet and is on the edge of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape.The driveway links established footpaths at Barton Hill to the north and a tree-lined route known as The Avenue, which runs from the picturesque St Mary’s Church in Kintbury across the Kennet and Avon Canal. The hamlet of Little Wawcott lies to the west and Avington to the east.
>Samuel Robins, 29, has lived in Little Wawcott all his life and owns one of the homes originally bought by his grandfather. As a child he walked along Mill Lane an average of four times a week from spring to autumn as it was the safe route his parents instructed him to use to return from school, he told the inquiry. As he got older he used it regularly to reach Kintbury station and the village pub. “I can state categorically that I have never been told to stop and turn back,” said Robins. “It is difficult to see what security and privacy issues are caused.”
>He also recalled using the path while working as a gardener for an “internationally famous author”, referring to Robert Harris, who lives in the former vicarage in Kintbury with his wife, Gill Hornby, a novelist. Robins said he was questioned about where he was going two or three times while using the route as a teenager but was not stopped from continuing. “We understood that it was not a designated footpath but we knew we could use it,” he added.
>Neal Pike, 70, said he first walked the route with ramblers in 1994. “I do not understand why the current owners are trying to close Mill Lane when it has been used by local walkers for decades,” he said. “It cannot be on the grounds of privacy or security as [another footpath] runs adjacent to their property.” Tony Vickers, a councillor and a member of the Ramblers’ Association, told the hearing he had walked almost every footpath within a ten-mile radius of Kintbury but never used Mill Lane because it was not designated for public use. However, he said he was representing “many of the constituents in the village” who did use the path and needed “safety when walking in the countryside”.
>Paul Wilmshurst, the barrister representing Matthews, said in a written submission: “He lives at Barton Court with his wife Mrs Pippa Matthews and their family.” Mill Lane “does not meet the legal requirements to be a footpath” and adding it to the definitive map of public rights of way would “cause very real practical [and] privacy difficulties and security issues”, he wrote. “The route is over land, which, at all material times, has formed and has had the local reputation as being the private drive to the house at Barton Court.”
>Conran bought Barton Court and 13 acres of land in 1971 and the rest of the estate in 2016. Wilmshurst said the designer appointed an estate manager who, if he saw trespassers, “would stop them and turn them back and explain that the route was a private drive”. A river-keeper also challenged trespassers.
>Wilmshurst said supporters of the footpath cannot claim an uninterrupted 20-year use as required by law. A rail bridge over The Avenue was replaced in 2016, resulting in its closure for six months, he said. In 2018 or 2019 the estate’s lodge gate was locked for a fortnight after being damaged by a delivery lorry. Anthony Stansfeld, 77, a life-long Kintbury resident, opposed making Mill Lane a public right of way as there are “clear security implications to opening this drive up”. He wrote: “I have never met the new owners. But I can quite understand their concerns about this.”
>Conran’s widow, Lady Victoria Conran, will give evidence in support of Matthews.
>Emma Rowland, representing the Ramblers’ Association, told the inquiry: “It is noted that some consultation comments referred to security considerations as a justification for why the order route should not be recorded as a public footpath. These considerations are irrelevant to the test under [section 31] of the Highways Act.”
>A spokeswoman for Middleton and Matthews said: “For as long as records exist, there has never been a footpath [or] public right of way on the land under discussion. For decades past there has always been signage pointing out this is the driveway to a private property, with no public access. There are other clearly marked footpaths nearby.”
I mean we all know why they hate/dislike Meghan so much but it seems to me they also have this intense dislike for Diana for no reason so I was wondering why?
>Pippa Middleton and her husband James Matthews have bid their passion project Buckleberry Farm a reluctant farewell after accumulating over six figures worth of debt every year since purchasing the property for around £1.3 million in 2021.
>The 72-acre farm is a deer and safari park with animals available to pet, as well as a soft play area, an outdoor playpark, a café and glamping safari-style tents for overnight stays. Events included a 'bunny disco' at Easter, and Santa's Grotto for children at Christmas.
>Despite the plethora of activity at the farm, the total debt of the property reached £807,543 in 2025, suggesting that Pippa and James struggled to turn Buckleberry Farm into a profitable business before finally throwing in the towel.
>In a further bid to improve prospects for the farm and tackle a shortage of early years care options in West Berkshire, the couple applied last year for permission to build a nursery on the site for children aged between nine months and five years. While initially approved, the plan soon ran into trouble when the local highways authority raised "significant concerns" about the excess cars in the area that the so-called 'countryside creche' would bring.
>Pippa and James attempted to push back, arguing that the "diversification" of the property was "essential to securing the farm's future, enabling it to remain open to the public and continue offering educational and recreational opportunities for the community". Despite their impassioned plea, the planning application was refused and their bid to save the farm fell short.
>Local opposition to the Middleton involvement in the farm had also increased in recent years, with visitors criticising the increased ticket prices, and one local going so far as to tell the Daily Mail that the scheme was nothing more than a "snooty cash grab", the local added, “This was a childhood favourite growing up in Berkshire, but since the Middleton takeover it has become a place of snobbery and middle-class inclusivity.”
>Although Pippa and James are no longer owners, the farm park remains open for business.