Princess Anne's life at Gatcombe is very different from the royal duties fans see her carry out in public. The 76-year-old is frequently described as the "hardest working royal", thanks to her many public engagements over the years. Away from the spotlight, however, experts, as well as one of her famous neighbours, say the Princess Royal enjoys a much quieter life on her 500-acre estate in Gloucestershire.
Neighbour's account of a 'nodding terms' relationship
Speaking recently, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen revealed he often sees King Charles' sister in a much more relaxed setting as he opened up about life in the Cotswolds. The Princess Royal is known to favour a more ordinary mode of transport and has been spotted by him at their local railway station, Kemble, on many occasions.
Laurence, who lives in Siddington, a village just outside Cirencester, said: "I've met her on the train quite often, yeah we're on kind of nodding terms. She travels with a few burly but super smart military types, all very very unfussy. No one bats an eyelid, we're all used to her."
"Prince [now King] Charles used to do it lots as well, at our local station Kemble," he added.
Informal community life in the Cotswolds
Princess Anne lives at Gatcombe Park, with her children Zara and Peter also having homes on the sprawling estate. "I see her children quite a lot, Peter is someone we know quite well and again, this is one of them things about our end of the Cotswolds, is that everyone sort of gets on well with each other in a very informal way," Laurence added.
"It's not about being a celebrity, I think it's very different when you get to the Oxfordshire kind of way where you've got all the smart people and the Beyonce's and Ellen DeGeneres and [people] like that. But with us, it's much more informal. Most of the time we're all just people in the community, we're all just parents at the school gate or whatever, there's no kind of real sense of, 'Well you're that guy off your tele or you're that guy off the film' or whatever."
Praising the "very good train service" from Kemble to Paddington in London, Llewelyn-Bowen said many residents across the Cotswolds favour travelling by train. "There are moments where the train to Paddington is more star-studded than the Expresso Bar at The Ivy," he joked.
A 'happy place' and a 'bolthole'
Meanwhile, royal author Robert Hardman says Gatcombe is Anne's "happy place". He shared: "She's fundamentally a country person. She's a very good grandmother, she's a hands-on but like all grandchildren, I think they can get away with things. She dotes on them."
"It's a lot less formal, she has Zara and Mike still living on the estate, Peter and Harriet nearby," he added. "She's a pragmatist, a divorcee herself, and I think, like every parent, she just wants to see her children happy."
"She adores them and it's touching to see her with her grandchildren at horse trials, showing them things and looking relaxed in her jeans," he added.
Alisa Anderson, a former communications secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, also told Hello! Magazine: "Gatcombe is the bolthole where she is not the Princess Royal, she is Anne."
