The owner of the manor house set in the ‘Hamptons of the UK’ has apologised to her neighbours ahead of JD Vance‘s stay.
As part of his ‘MAGA summer’ holiday, the US vice-president is set to make a visit to the Grade II-listed Oxfordshire property, accompanied by his wife Usha and children Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
It comes after a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy, set within 3,000 acres of North Downs countryside.
Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other’s families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting.
Now, Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home with her husband Johnny in 2017, has told villagers that she was ‘so sorry for the circus’ set to take place across the coming days, The Telegraph has reported.
The luxury manor house believed to be hosting Mr Vance was built in 1702 for Thomas Rowney, an Oxford MP and is set near Diddly Squat farm, owned by Jeremy Clarkson, who has previously voiced his dislike for Mr Vance.
Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery.
Dubbed the ‘Hamptons of the UK’ due to its idyllic scenery and upmarket properties, the quaint Oxforshire village of Charlbury, which houses up to 3,000 residents, has been preparing for Mr Vance’s anticipated arrival.
Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home (pictured) with her husband Johnny in 2017, has told villagers that she was ‘so sorry for the circus’ set to take place across the coming days ahead of Mr Vance’s visit, the Telegraph has reported
The luxury manor house believed to be hosting Mr Vance was built in 1702 for Thomas Rowney, an Oxford MP. Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery
It comes after a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy, set within 3,000 acres of North Downs countryside. Pictured: Mr Lammy and De Vance show off their fishing skills at the Chevening country retreat
With the US politician expected to make a one-night visit, checkpoints are said to have been installed by secret service agents, alongside a makeshift helipad in a remote field.
One local previously told the Daily Mail: ‘There has been a lot of activity at the manor this last few days. It is hard to miss. Security absolutely everywhere.
‘Men dressed identically surrounding the property with ear pieces and dark glasses.
‘Blacked out Mercedes vans shuttling people around every few minutes. We have never seen anything like it. It’s like something out of a film.
‘The word is that it is indeed for JD Vance. So we shall see.’
In the grounds, American secret service personnel in dark glasses, talking into ear-pieces, were dotted around its four corners keeping watch.
On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping ‘in and out’ driveway, two suited security guards were checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans.
One local villager told the Telegraph that a large antennae placed behind the house, perhaps a telecoms tower, is ‘humming constantly’ and had failed to improve their poor phone signal.
On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping ‘in and out’ driveway, two suited security guards were checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans
Large trucks and marquees have also reportedly been placed along the small, picturesque roads at two locations. Within the grounds, teams of gardeners had been drafted in to make the lawns and pretty herbaceous borders look immaculate
Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other’s families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting. Pictured: Mr Vance and Mr Lammy in Rome in May this year
Meanwhile, another slightly less amused local seemed almost entirely uanware of the upcoming visit at all.
When asked about Mr Vance, he remarked: ‘Who? I’m unsure who that is.’
Large trucks and marquees have also reportedly been placed along the small, picturesque roads at two locations. Within the grounds, teams of gardeners had been drafted in to make the lawns and pretty herbaceous borders look immaculate.
As the Daily Mail reported last month, the tiny village of Charlbury is home to the UK’s best pub, The Bull.
Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford.
It comes as the Cotswolds have become the latest hot ticket with Americans seeking what they see as a traditional cosy English escape.
Ellen DeGeneres, the US talk show host, is reportedly deliberately fleeing her home in the area ahead of Vance’s arrival after leaving the US following Trump’s election.
Fashion journalist Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4 last month of the cosy English haven: ‘It’s just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable… it’s an incredibly beautiful area because it’s being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in.
With the US politician expected to make a one-night visit, checkpoints are said to have been installed by secret service agents, alongside a makeshift helipad in a remote field (pictured)
Chevening (pictured), a 400-year-old Grade I listed mansion, has been the de-facto summer residence of the Foreign Secretary for decades, after being gifted to the UK in 1959
Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a ‘friend’ and someone who ‘completely relates’ to him. The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds – both being raised without their fathers – and their religion
‘Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it’s been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York.
It’s only an hour away from London by direct train – making it an ideal place to live for the well-to-do commuter – and has a population of just over 3,500, per the most recent census.
Despite their differences in political opinions, Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a ‘friend’ and someone who ‘completely relates’ to him.
The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds – both being raised without their fathers – and their religion: Mr Lammy is an Anglican; Mr Vance a baptised Catholic since 2019.
Ahead of Mr Vance’s visit, which a source claimed would include a ‘short bilateral meeting’, the Foreign Office said ministerial engagements would be announced in ‘the usual way’.
Chevening, a 400-year-old Grade I listed mansion, has been the de-facto summer residence of the Foreign Secretary for decades, after being gifted to the UK in 1959 via the Chevening Estate Act after being bequeathed by the last Earl Stanhope, James Richard Stanhope.
The unlikely friendship of a Labour Foreign Secretary and a Republican Vice-President comes a year after the current Government came to power – when Mr Lammy casually swept aside concerns that diplomacy would be hard to achieve.
Dubbed the ‘Hamptons of the UK’ due to its idyllic scenery and upmarket properties, the quaint Oxforshire village of Charlbury (pictured), which houses up to 3,000 residents, has been preparing for Mr Vance’s anticipated arrival
One local previously told the Daily Mail: ‘There has been a lot of activity at the manor this last few days. It is hard to miss. Security absolutely everywhere’
Pictured: a small protest in Chevening ahead of the visit by Mr Vance
Mr Lammy insisted he could find ways to relate with the then-favourite VP nominee, despite once calling Mr Trump a ‘woman-hating neo-Nazi sociopath’ and a ‘tyrant in a toupee’.
He has since called those comments ‘old news’ – and the pair have bonded over their similar upbringings and their strong views on family.
Mr Lammy told the BBC last July their ‘similar backgrounds’ had led to common ground.
‘Let me just say on JD Vance that I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working-class backgrounds with addiction issues in our family,’ he told the Breakfast programme.
‘We’ve written books on that, we’ve talked about that, and we’re both Christians. So I think I can find common ground with JD Vance.’
The pair have indeed bonded in an unlikely Labour-MAGA bromance, with Mr Lammy and Mr Vance pictured in warm, cordial exchanges each time they have met in a formal capacity.
In March, the Foreign Secretary and his wife Nicola Green visited the vice-president’s official residence, the Naval Observatory, for a private meeting without officials.
And the Foreign Secretary told The Guardian earlier this month he and Mr Vance spent a ‘wonderful hour and a half’ together over drinks at the US Embassy in Italy during the inauguration of the new Pope, Leo XIV.
Mr Lammy told the BBC last July that him and Mr Vance’s’similar backgrounds’ had led to common ground. ‘Let me just say on JD Vance that I’ve met him now on several occasions, we share a similar working-class backgrounds with addiction issues in our family,’ he told the Breakfast programme
The Grade I listed estate of Chevening has been a ministerial retreat for decades after being gifted to the nation by the last Earl Stanhope (pictured in March)
‘I remember being at the inauguration of the new pope in Rome with Angela Rayner and JD Vance,’ he said.
‘I don’t think JD and Angela will mind me saying that they were having a couple of drinks … I really wanted a glass (of rosé) but instead I had a Diet Coke.’
It comes shortly after President Trump visited Scotland, spending time teeing off at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire in between holding diplomatic talks with the Prime Minister.
Announcing plans for a protest during Trump’s proposed state visit to the UK in September, the Stop Trump Coalition alliance said: ‘We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.
‘JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.
‘We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.’
