Pippa Middleton and husband win battle to stop public right of way through Berkshire estate

Pippa Middleton and her husband have the won the right to block a public footpath through her family’s country estate due to concerns over security.

The younger sister and brother-in-law of the Princess of Wales were accused of using their link to the royal family to justify banning walkers from using the contested route.

Kate’s sister Pippa married James Matthews, a hedge fund boss, in May 2017, and the family moved to Barton Court in west Berkshire in the autumn of 2022.

Mr Matthews installed an electric security gate on the drive in September 2022, as he told a planning inquiry at Kintbury Coronation Hall near Hungerford earlier this year that there is a need for a higher level of security at his property due to his family’s high public profile.

This prompted walking group West Berkshire Ramblers to apply for a “definitive map modification order” in January 2023 to recognise a public footpath on the land.

They argued that the pathway was used by generations of walkers, providing a crucial link to a public footpath that runs across the estate from outlying areas and the village’s church.

Now planning inspector Kenneth Taylor has decided not to confirm the order, which means that the route will not be recorded as a public footpath.

In a statement to the inquiry, West Berkshire District Council said the application was based on “the legal principle that a public footpath can be deemed to exist if it has been enjoyed by the public for an uninterrupted period of 20 years, without force, secrecy or permission, or if evidence infers that a public footpath has been dedicated by a landowner at some point in the past and that dedication has then been accepted by the public (i.e. by being used by the public)”.

Speaking at the inquiry in May, Mr Matthews said there was nothing in the conveyancing process which alerted him to any public use of the drive when he purchased the property in August 2022.

Mr Matthews said: “There are implications for my family, due to their high public profile, which means there is a need for a higher level of security than would otherwise be the case if the circumstances were different.

“Therefore to improve security for my family, before we moved in, I arranged for an electric security gate to be erected on the drive.

“This is the gate at Point X. It was installed in September 2022. It is kept shut, except perhaps on the odd occasion such as when a visit by family or friends is expected.

“When the gate was put in, no one from the parish council or the village came to speak with us, or contacted us, about the gate to say that there was any problem with it being there.

“In the period after the footpath application, unfortunately there has been a continued need to enhance security and the gates at Station Road have therefore been upgraded in the summer of 2025 and kept closed.”

He also said in the last three-and-a-half years he has seen “only a handful of people, on maybe two or three occasions, walking along the drive”.

Each time he said he spoke to those on the drive and told them it was not a public footpath and they acknowledged that it was not a footpath.

Mr Matthews was supported by the widow of Sir Terence Conran, who sold him the estate after her husband’s death who told the inquiry that she “only ever saw one person using the driveway who should not have been there” in 30 years.

Last month, the couple were told to dig up an “unsightly” car park on their estate following complaints from residents.

They had sought retrospective planning permission for the site, which had already been constructed last year.

However, West Berkshire Council agreed with objections raised to the parking site in February, and dismissed their appeal last month after concluding it “does not conserve the landscape and scenic beauty” of the area.

They said: “Due to its size and engineered appearance, the development has introduced a visually intrusive and urbanised feature into an otherwise meadow.”

The car park is located on the Wessex Downs, which has enhanced protections as a National Landscape, an area of particular scenic beauty.