The wife of the late Sir Terence Conran was drawn into Pippa Middleton's ongoing dispute with walkers over a footpath on her £15 million country estate. The sister of the Princess of Wales and her husband, hedge fund manager James Matthews, are fighting with The Ramblers, Britain's walking charity, over access to a path on their Grade I-listed Barton Court in Berkshire.
The couple have been accused of 'splitting the community' in the village of Kintbury after erecting a gate to block Mill Lane to walkers, citing security and privacy concerns. Angry residents claim they have used the route for generations to reach the village centre, bypassing Station Road, which has blind turns, no pavement, and cars travelling at 60mph.
They say the path was always left open by the estate's former owner, the late Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran, on the understanding that it could be used as a public passageway. Some accuse Ms Middleton of using her sister's royal status to justify banning ramblers.
Ms Middleton, 42, and Mr Matthews, 50, who live with their three children, bought the 145-acre estate for £15m in 2022 and installed electric gates and signs reading 'Private: No Public Access' and 'No Trespassing' at both ends of the path. They argue Mill Lane has never existed as a public footpath and has always had signage indicating it was private property.
Lady Victoria Conran, who lived on the estate from 1992 until 2022, came out in support of the couple on the second day of a Planning Inspectorate hearing. She claimed she only saw a single person, a woman with a pram, walking the route during her decades at the property and told her estate manager to warn her she was on private land.
She told the inquiry: 'I was not aware of anyone regularly walking on the drive between Station Road and the footpath. In the thirty years that I lived at Barton Court, I only ever saw one person using the driveway who should not have been there. She had a pram. I saw her on a few occasions and asked David Hill for it to be made clear that she was not permitted to use that route. This occurred towards the end of my time at Barton Court. Suffice to say, I never observed any organised groups of ramblers using the driveway.'
Lady Victoria was earlier seen mingling with Mr Matthews, who sat with his legal team and was not accompanied by his wife for the hearing at Kintbury Coronation Hall, which was packed with more than 40 villagers. During a tense examination, she claimed she had 'never heard anything referred to, until today, as Mill Lane. The public footpath was the obvious and preferred route for the public to use.'
Lady Victoria clashed with Emma Rowland, representing the ramblers, who questioned if she was certain her estate manager had warned walkers against using the route. Asked if her memory was clear, Lady Victoria replied: 'I'm more than 70 years old… it's not 100 per cent all the time. This is a weaselly question.' She also conceded that she may not have been able to see people using the pathway from inside her home.
But some villagers claim they have used the path for generations and fear the only alternative route is the dangerous Station Road. Neil Pike, 72, the local 'footpath secretary' for ramblers, told the inquiry Mill Lane was 'intrinsic' to life in Kintbury. 'Until recently I have never known Mill Lane to be closed for any reason,' he said. 'In all the time I have been footpath secretary no one has reported to me that they've been stopped or turned back while walking along Mill Lane. If Mill lane is removed from public use then Station Road is the only alternative and does not bear thinking about. I do not understand why the present owners are trying to close it when it has been used by the walking public for decades.'
Catherine Graham Walker told the inquiry she has walked the route for years and 'never spoke to anyone' who suggested she could not use the road or that she needed permission. 'If they clearly signalled it, I would have respected it.' Resident Charles Robins said: 'At no time have I ever been told not to use the route. It has always been an intrinsic and vitally safe connection to the existing footpath.' He said it is 'only a matter of time before a fatal or serious accident with pedestrians on Station Road. I don't quite understand how restricting use of the road would improve privacy or security.'
Tony Vickers, a local Liberal Democrat councillor, said he had never used Mill Lane as it was not a designated public path, but understood locals preferred it to walking on the main road. He told the Daily Mail: 'The path has been used for generations but money talks. The Middletons are not well connected with the community. There's a sense they're splitting the community. There are a number of very wealthy anti-ramblers but ordinary people and people who like walking would like to see it open.'
Another resident of 20 years said: 'We have so many famous people living around here - footballers, other celebrities, they don't make a fuss. They come here to live in peace, like we all do. Apart from the Middletons. I understand they think they're important but Conran was important too and he didn't make a fuss and impose himself on us.'
Paul Wilmshurst, the barrister representing Mr Matthews, said in a written submission that declaring the path a public right of way would 'cause very real practical [and] privacy difficulties and security issues'. He said: '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.' The Matthews were supported by life-long Kintbury resident Anthony Stansfield, who said: 'I have never met the new owners. But I can quite understand their concerns about this.'
Another former resident told the Mail: 'No one has ever walked there.' They claimed it is 'nonsense' that it has been used for generations. The couple rejects any notion that the estate's previous owner allowed locals to pass.
Ken Taylor, the Government-appointed planning inspector, said questions of privacy and security were outside the scope of the inquiry, suggesting Ms Middleton's royal connections will hold no sway. Instead, the decision will be made based upon the law as it stands on public rights of passage. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, a private path can be claimed as a public right of way if the public has had 20 years of 'unfettered access' prior. But Mr Wilmshurst said this was not the case, as the rail bridge on the Avenue was closed for six months in 2016 for replacement, and the estate's gates were locked around eight years ago after being damaged by a lorry.
A spokesperson for Ms Middleton and Mr Matthews disputed claims that Sir Terence allowed locals to use Mill Lane as a right of way. 'For as long as records exist, there has never been a footpath or public right of way on the land currently under discussion,' the spokesperson told the Mail. '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. Contrary to media reports the previous owners at the property from as far back as the 1970's, did not allow public access to the land under discussion. It has always been private property.'
