They’ve survived setbacks which would have put paid to other families – not least paying death duties amounting to more than three-quarters of the value of their West Country estates.
Nevertheless, since that blow – suffered back in 1954 – the Seymours, dukes of Somerset, have managed to soldier on, out of the spotlight and on good terms with innumerable tenants and other locals.
But is that happy state of affairs now at an end?
The question’s prompted by the fate of The Bradley Hare on the 3,400 acres the Duke owns in Wiltshire and which, I can reveal, was closed in dramatic manner in the run-up to Christmas – remaining barred and empty ever since, with notices and red tape slapped across all three of its entrance doors.
None of that seemed possible when, in 2021, the 12-bedroom establishment, formerly known as The Somerset Arms, reopened in the village of Maiden Bradley after being dazzlingly updated by James Thurstan Waterworth, design director at Soho House, in partnership with hospitality entrepreneur Andrew Kelly.
Promptly named the best pub in Wiltshire in the National Pub & Bar Awards, it had metropolitan critics swooning – one of them dubbing it a ‘delectable little weekend bolthole’ with ‘precisely piled logs and lovingly curated displays of African carvings’.
Lord Seymour, the 19th Duke of Somerset, with wife Judith
The Bradley Hare was closed in dramatic manner in the run-up to Christmas – remaining barred and empty ever since
It also found favour with the Duke’s son and heir, Sebastian, Lord Seymour, 43, who now runs the estate and rules the roost at the family seat, Bradley House, after his father John, the 19th Duke, 73, made way for him.
‘We wanted it to be like every good country inn,’ Sebastian explained soon after The Bradley Hare opened, adding that he and Thurstan Waterworth based their ‘branding colours of burnt yellow and red on a dress worn by Jane Seymour, Henry VIII’s third wife’.
None of that did staff any good before Christmas.
‘It was shut overnight,’ a local tells me, adding that there was no warning. ‘Staff already in the building were removed, and the others who were due to start couldn’t get in.’
Worse was to come. ‘It was before pay-day. None of them have been paid since then.’
Rumours abound – and anger mounts. ‘It was a disagreement between the business owner [Andrew Kelly] and the building owner [Lord Seymour],’ a local insists.
‘The Duke gave his walled garden to the local community to set up a community allotment.
‘People feel differently about the person who now runs the estate.’
Neither Lord Seymour nor Mr Kelly responds to requests for comment.
Perhaps his lordship is distracted. His second wife, Poppy, is, I’m told, expecting their first child.
£70m Trinny is sitting pretty
Trinny Woodall revealed last year that she still didn’t own a home after selling her property to fund her beauty company. The former What Not To Wear presenter, 61, can surely now afford to invest in bricks and mortar, as her firm Trinny London has enjoyed a bumper year.
It had an income of £70million in the 12 months to March 2025, according to newly filed accounts at Companies House, amounting to £191,000 in daily takings. That’s the highest sales total so far reported by the cosmetics firm, which she set up in 2017.
Alice models the latex look for mums-to-be
Model and photographer Alice Dellal has revealed her second pregnancy in dramatic fashion in a red latex minidress
Model and photographer Alice Dellal, who succeeded Kate Moss as the face of the luxe lingerie label Agent Provocateur, has revealed her second pregnancy in dramatic fashion.
While most expectant mothers reach for elastic waistbands, Alice, 38, showed off her growing baby bump in a red latex minidress, which she paired with a black leather jacket during a party in London.
Flair certainly runs in the family for Alice, whose sister is shoe designer Charlotte Olympia. Their late grandfather, ‘Black Jack’ Dellal, once blew £1.7million in a Monte Carlo casino in a single night in 2006.
This will be Alice’s second child with her boyfriend, professional skateboarder Charlie Birch, 27. The pair, who are currently soaking up the sun overseas on a ‘babymoon’, already have a one-year-old son, Buster.
Pansexual Frankie celebrates a year of love
Frankie Herbert has announced 2025 was the year in which she ‘proudly shared my experience of being queer polyamorous’
Her past lovers have included Eliot Sumner, fifth of rock star Sting’s six offspring. But Frankie Herbert, ebullient granddaughter of the late 7th Earl of Carnarvon and step-daughter of the current Duke of Norfolk, has no intention of locking herself away with a single admirer.
Reviewing 2025 – a year, says Frankie, 30, of ‘so, so, so much love’ – she announces that it was also the year in which she ‘proudly shared my experience of being queer polyamorous’.
For the uninitiated, polyamory is the practice of engaging in multiple sexual relationships, with the consent of everyone involved.
Until now, the aristocracy’s most demonstrative champion of a polyamorous life was the 7th Marquess of Bath. But, in notching up over 70 ‘wifelets’, Alexander Thynn – the so-called Loins of Longleat – remained resolutely heterosexual.
By contrast, Frankie, who sashayed down the catwalk at the only fashion show Queen Elizabeth ever attended, has previously declared herself ‘pansexual’ – potentially attracted to anyone, regardless of their sex.
Bridgerton star Genevieve joins the Country Life set
Genevieve Chenneour, who played Clara Livingston in Netflix’s hit costume drama Bridgerton, has been granted one of the aristocracy’s most civilised honours
Genevieve Chenneour, who made headlines last year when she fought off a violent phone thief in west London, has been granted one of the aristocracy’s most civilised honours.
The actress, 28, who played Clara Livingston in Netflix’s hit costume drama Bridgerton, has been selected for the ‘girl in pearls’ page of Country Life, house journal of the hunting, shooting and fishing set.
‘I was so grateful when they asked me,’ she tells me. ‘I believe women can be strong, loud, graceful and deeply feminine all at once. Those qualities are often seen as contradictions, but they work beautifully together. I want to be a role model for young women.’
The actress was also attacked by a stranger in London last year minutes before an audition.
‘They picked on me because I’m beautiful,’ she said. ‘When you’re beautiful, people want something from you.
‘And if they can’t have you, they want to prove that they’ve got some power over you.’
David Walliams, who was dropped by his publisher HarperCollins last month amid sexual harassment allegations against him, has failed to win any solidarity from fellow TV star and best-selling novelist Richard Osman.
Osman points out that no one wants to defend the comedian, who strongly denies the claims. ‘A lot of people will have a lot of defenders in those situations,’ he says.
‘Lots of people make mistakes or… misjudge things in a studio, and usually a production team will sort of gather around and look after them, but not if they feel that maybe this person is fair game.’
Gina Yashere has once again unleashed a tirade against ‘hellscape’ America
British comedienne Gina Yashere sparked outrage last year when she branded Trump ally Charlie Kirk ‘xenophobic, transphobic, homophobic, racist, misogynist and sexist’ just days after he was assassinated.
Now, the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy star, 51, who lives in America, has unleashed a fresh tirade against the US, calling it ‘a fascist hellscape’.
She made her comments online after the White House defended the agent who shot dead a mother-of-three earlier this week in Minneapolis. ‘The orange turd and his minions are outright lying about what we all saw,’ Yashere wrote. ‘I can see how the Nazis got away with it so long.’
Royal chum Alice’s mid-air turbulence
Socialite and entrepreneur Alice Naylor-Leyland was on a flight home from Miami with her family when she was criticised over her parenting style with her 20-month-old daughter, Margot
Her friends range from Princess Beatrice to Hollywood royalty Reese Witherspoon, and she’s made a name for herself with her themed dining sets.
But Alice Naylor-Leyland must have felt like smashing crockery after a fellow mother asked her to leave an aeroplane cabin.
The socialite and entrepreneur, 39, who has four children with Tom Naylor Leyland, heir to his family’s £176million fortune and vast Fitzwilliam Malton Estate in North Yorkshire, was on a flight home from Miami with her family when she was criticised over her parenting style with her 20-month-old daughter, Margot.
‘She cried for ten minutes half way through [the flight],’ says Alice. ‘I was amazed at another mother who came and got cross about the crying. She asked me to take the baby out of the cabin and [said] there was no excuse for her tears. It saddened me.
‘Babies can’t be robots and I feel mothers need to support each other… Sorry for the rant.’
The smart set’s talking about…Another ding dong at Christo girl’s wedding?
Lady Alexandra Taylour, daughter of the Marquess of Headfort, is to marry George Witherley, her colleague at insurance firm Marsh
This could be a lively wedding! The Marquess of Headfort, who memorably pushed his fully clothed cousin Lord Brocket into a swimming pool at the former jailbird’s wedding reception in the south of France, is celebrating his daughter’s engagement.
Lady Alexandra Taylour, 28 is to marry George Witherley, 31, her colleague at insurance firm Marsh.
‘I’m delighted for them,’ the marquess, Christo Headfort, tells me, saying the wedding could be in Ireland, where his father sold the family seat, Headfort House in County Meath, for more than £1million in 1981. Christo’s friend, TV star Jeremy Clarkson, might be among the guests.
‘Great news about Alexandra,’ petrolhead-turned-farmer Clarkson says of the former Cheltenham Ladies’ College pupil. ‘She’s a lovely girl.’
Dominic West has sent his two sons to Eton, but regrets that Prince William and Harry’s alma mater has abolished ‘fagging’.
That’s the tradition of younger pupils acting as servants to older ones. ‘It was a really great way for the younger boys to hang out with the older boys and get to know them,’ says The Affair star, 56, who attended the Berkshire boarding school in the 1980s.
‘You had to clean their rooms or make toast, nothing too arduous, and you got paid and got to use their stereo.’
