The estate was granted to the Montagu family in 1540 by King Henry VIII, and they kept it until 1913, when it was sold by the 6th Duke of Buccleuch. In the interim period (1913–1938), Prince Philip's future Private Secretary Sir Brian McGrath (1925–2016) grew up at the manor until his parents bought their own house.[2] The house may have been rented to a series of tenants.
It was announced in January 1995 that the Gloucesters would vacate the house, so that Princess Alice could move to Kensington Palace to be with her son, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester.[6] As of 2017, Windsor House Antiques occupies the estate.[7]
In 2013 the High Court disallowed an application by West Coast Energy to build a wind farm close to the manor's lodge. An appeal was subsequently dismissed.[8] The appeal gained increased media attention because Justine Thornton, wife of the Labour leader Ed Miliband, was representing the appellant.[9] The Duke of Gloucester had supported the proposal.[10]
The house has four reception rooms, seven principal bedrooms, and six bathrooms. It is a 40-room 16,731 sq ft (1,554.4 m2) Grade II eighteenth-century manor house, with origins dating to 1586. The estate now comprises 2,500 acres (10 km2) farmed by the present Duke of Gloucester, and the ruined Barnwell Castle, built c.1266 by Berenger le Moyne, who sold it to Ramsey Abbey in 1276. The abbey held the castle until 1536, when it passed to the king. The Elizabethanmanor house became the principal residence, and the living quarters and all internal buildings of the castle were demolished in 1704.
