Duke puts family pile up for sale (Yours for £4.75m)

THE King is said to be considering turning Balmoral into a museum, while retaining Birkhall — once the Queen Mother’s residence — which he considers his ‘true home’ on the 50,000-acre estate.

But there will be no similar consolation for another working royal, the Duke of Gloucester.

I can reveal that Richard Gloucester, a first cousin of the late Queen, has put the magnificent Barnwell Manor, in Northamptonshire, on the market for the best offer above £4.75million. 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.

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.

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. I’m told that, despite Barnwell’s impending sale, 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, of course, now live in California.