The remote mansion 150 miles from London that William and Kate were tipped to move to
King Charles bought the Hereford estate in 2000 and renovated it, with rumours it was for Prince William and Kate to move into.
The site for the intended home was over 100 miles from the couple’s current home in Windsor and even further from their country home in Norfolk.
King Charles acquired the 900-acre delipidated estate in 2000 with plans for a grand £9million renovation of farmhouses, cottages and other agricultural buildings.
Plans to replace an out-of-place bungalow with a Georgian-style mansion at Harewood End were approved by Herefordshire Council in 2004.
The stunning mini-mansion was tipped to have six bedrooms with traditional country house features such as a drawing room, a dining room, a library and an orangery.
READ MORE King Charles sends Kim Jong-un ‘best wishes for the future’ in surprise message
It was rumoured that the estate was for Prince William (Image: Getty)
Though it looked traditional, the design was filled with 21st century features that made it environmentally friendly.
Plans to replace an out-of-place bungalow with the Georgian-style mini-mansion were approved by Herefordshire Council in 2007.
The Duchy wanted to build a smaller and more sustainable house with a triumphal arch monument so the home had “sufficient architectural presence”.
The application stated: “The house is the symbolic heart of the estate and its construction will give meaning to the whole project.
“The complete restoration of the devastated Harewood Park by the Duchy of Cornwall is possibly the first total restoration of an entire estate in Herefordshire.”
After their marriage, it was thought William and Kate would move to the estate (Image: Getty)
The application concluded: “The house is the symbolic heart of the estate and its construction will give meaning to the whole project.
“The complete restoration of the devastated Harewood Park by the Duchy of Cornwall is possibly the first total restoration of an entire estate in Herefordshire.
“The construction of the house will form the final phase of the project and it will be a triumph if this can be achieved; Hence the “triumphal arch” theme of the proposed house is not only important architecturally but symbolically.
Work was continuing on the rest of the estate when William and Kate announced their engagement in 2010.
After their wedding the next year, when the couple went to live in Anglesey while William carried out his helicopter pilot training, it was widely reported that they would live in Herefordshire when the house was finished.
DON’T MISS
William ‘true power behind the throne’ as he ‘should have taken over from Queen’ [INSIGHT]
Prince Harry ‘kept waiting’ over permission to visit Queen’s grave in private [EXPLAINER]
King’s Coronation chairs to be auctioned off – but one detail kept under wraps [REVEAL]
Harewood End in Hereford (Image: Getty)
The couple moved into Anmer Hall in 2015, two years after the birth of Prince George, and have since moved to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor.
David Curtis, head of the Harewood project, retired in 2020 and the Duchy confirmed the next year that the building of the house would not go forward.
“Although planning consent for a statement house was granted some time ago, the Duchy never took it forward,” said a spokesman.
TRENDING
William and Kate’s former home, Anmer Hall (Image: Getty)
The original house dates back hundreds of years when it was home to the Hoskyns family for almost 300 years until it was bought and modernised by the Parry family.
In 1941, Harewood Park was sold to the trustees of Guy’s Hospital and used as a war hospital during World War II, but was deemed surplus to requirements when the fighting stopped and eventually used for demolition practice by the Royal Engineers.
A modern bungalow, described as “wildly inappropriate” built on the site of the demolished mansion in the 1960s and after that beagles were brought in for animal testing.
