A house on the grounds of Althorp, Princess Diana’s childhood home and burial site, burned down last night in what her brother alleges was a possible arson attack.
Early Wednesday morning, Charles Spencer, the younger brother of Princess Diana and owner of Althorp, took to Instagram and X to thank firefighters for their overnight work putting out a fire on the grounds. According to Spencer, the fire destroyed a “luckily unoccupied” farmhouse.
The Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service later confirmed to People that the main house was not affected by the fire.
The Northamptonshire Police told the BBC they have not officially recorded the fire as a crime, but said they may update their record “if there is evidence to indicate it was started deliberately.”
However, both Charles Spencer and the estate’s conservation manager, Adey Greeno, have alleged the fire was the direct result of vandalism.
In his post announcing the fire, Spencer wrote that the farmhouse was “apparently burnt down by vandals last night,” adding, “So very sad that anyone would think this a fun thing to do.”
Similarly, Greeno wrote on X this morning, “The farmhouse that we lost to a deliberate act of vandalism last night has now had to be razed to the ground for safety reasons. So sad. The world we live in.”
However, David Fawkes, the estate’s chief executive, said in a statement to the BBC that he doesn’t yet know how the fire started. In the same statement, Fawkes confirmed that the farmhouse had been “completely destroyed by the fire,” but said the “surrounding outbuildings are undamaged.”
According to a spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Service, who spoke to both People and the BBC, fire crews responded to reports of a fire at Dallington Grange farmhouse on the grounds of Althorp in Kingsthorpe, Northampton, at around 1:30 a.m. local time. When they arrived, the two-story structure—which they described as “derelict”—was already “fully on fire.”
Firefighters spent the rest of the night attempting to quell the blaze, which ultimately required four crews to douse, according to the spokesperson. One crew remained at the farmhouse until 1 p.m. the following afternoon to put out any hotspots.
Not only was Althorp the late Princess of Wales’ childhood home, but its grounds are also her final resting place. After her death in 1997, Princess Diana was buried on a small islet at the center of the estate’s lake, which is not accessible to the public. Her burial site was not damaged in the fire.
The Althorp Estate has been in the Spencer family for over 500 years, having been initially purchased by John Spencer in 1508. The main house was built in 1688 and became the childhood home of Princess Diana and her three siblings when they began living with their father, John Spencer, after their parents’ 1968 divorce.
Since his father’s death in 1992, Charles, now the 9th Earl Spencer, has been the estate’s official owner. In 1998, he published a book about the estate, Althorp: The Story of an English House, in which he detailed selecting his sister’s private resting place and commissioning a small Doric-style temple and garden on the grounds to serve as her public memorial.
Until 2013, part of the Althorp House grounds also served as a museum exhibition dedicated to Diana’s life, featuring many of her childhood belongings. However, the Spencers ultimately decided to close the exhibition and give its contents to her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
The estate itself remains open to the public in July and August of each year. Charles Spencer has not said whether the fire will impact Althorp’s summer schedule, though most of the grounds were undamaged.
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