A removals van arrived at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Royal Lodge home this morning as the disgraced ex-prince prepares to leave the Windsor mansion.
The former Duke of York is expected to move into a temporary property on the King’s Sandringham estate in Norfolk at some point over the coming fortnight.
Andrew is set to stay at that property until Easter, when renovation works on Marsh Farm – anticipated to be his new home on the estate – are scheduled to be finished.
Marsh Farm is getting a revamp with workers installing Sky TV and a new security fence while Andrew leaves Royal Lodge before his 66th birthday next month.
Sky engineers were spotted up ladders this week outside the property in Wolferton, just two miles away from Charles’s Sandringham home. A six-foot wooden privacy fence has also sprung up, replacing the wire mesh previously on the perimeter.
Insiders have said Marsh Farm needed a lot of work to ‘make it habitable’. Workers have also been spotted using a JCB digger and installing security lights on the walls.
A local security firm’s van was parked on the driveway, and team of at least six people have been toiling through the cold and the rain this week.
Andrew is reportedly moving in to the farmhouse after vacating Royal Lodge.
A removal van arrives at Royal Lodge in Windsor this morning before Andrew moves out
The van is driven towards Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Royal Lodge home this morning
The van arrives at Royal Lodge in Windsor today as the disgraced ex-prince prepares to leave
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor rides during heavy rain on the Windsor estate on Tuesday
He will first move into a temporary property on the King’s Norfolk estate as early as the end of this month.
Andrew is set to stay there until Easter, when the work on Marsh Farm is scheduled to be finished.
It is understood that the farmhouse and the surrounding outhouses’ previous tenant died some time ago.
The Sandringham no-fly zone was extended at the end of last year to include the property and a drone ban was extended last autumn.
The farm lies in the secluded village of Wolferton, which has a church and a social club, but no pubs or village shops.
It is also near the King’s Wood Farm estate, where Prince Philip lived after his retirement.
Andrew reportedly wanted to live at Wood Farm on Sandringham, which is a five-bedroom cottage near the stables and pheasant shooting grounds, but there were concerns that would leave him ‘too close’ to the rest of the family.
On Saturday the Daily Mail revealed how Royal Lodge was not once inspected by officials in the 22 years he lived there rent-free despite his lease having strict conditions.
When the lease for the 30-room home was signed in 2003, it included unique terms which included no rent but a costly upfront refurbishment and upkeep schedule.
The disgraced royal paid £8million to repair the then-dilapidated property, and promised to allow inspectors in at ‘all reasonable times’ to make sure he looked after it.
A Sky engineer up a ladder against the wall of Marsh Farm where Andrew is expected to move
A team of at least six have been working on the Marsh Farm property in Norfolk this week
A solid six-foot high wooden fence has sprung up around parts of the Marsh Farm perimeter
Workers are getting Marsh Farm ready for Andrew’s expected arrival around Easter time
A JCB digger and a van from a local security firm parked on the driveway at Marsh Farm
Marsh Farm is a much smaller property than Andrew is used to at Royal Lodge in Windsor
A workman measures up for the installation of new security lights on one of the red brick walls
The panelling replaces flimsy wire that stood before and allowed a good view from the road
Marsh Farm is two miles west of the monarch’s Sandringham House in Norfolk
In return, his estate landlord, the independent company which manages Crown properties for the benefit of the taxpayer, allowed him to pay no rent for the duration of the 75-year lease.
But not one Crown Estate official carried out an inspection of Royal Lodge in the whole time Andrew lived there – raising concerns of a ‘sweetheart deal’ at taxpayers’ expense.
Andrew has still been living there with his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, while work is completed ahead of their move.
The King’s brother was finally banished from the Royal Family last year.
Andrew had been embroiled in controversy for years over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and allegations, which he denies, that he sexually assaulted Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenager and had been trafficked by Epstein.
Ms Giuffre’s death by suicide in April, her posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl and the release of documents and emails relating to Epstein intensified the focus on the late Queen’s second son.
It emerged he emailed Epstein telling him ‘we are in this together’ in 2011, three months after he claimed he had broken off all contact with the sex offender.
Andrew stepped away from his public role in 2019 and later paid millions to settle a civil sexual assault case with Ms Giuffre, whom Andrew claimed never to have met despite being pictured with his arm around her at now-convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s home in London.
Royal Lodge, the lavish Windsor mansion Andrew still shares with his ex-wife Sarah (file image)
Andrew has lived at the 30-bedroom property Royal Lodge in Windsor since 2003 (file image)
The entrance to Royal Lodge and the property can be seen in Windsor’s Great Park (file image)
In 2022, his mother Queen Elizabeth II ordered him to stop using his HRH style and removed his honorary military roles.
Andrew agreed to no longer use his Duke of York title last October, but the King went a step further a fortnight later and dramatically stripped him of both his right to be a prince and his dukedom, making Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor a commoner for the first time.
Just before Christmas, newly-surfaced emails from the Epstein files revealed one sent from Balmoral and signed ‘A’ asking Maxwell ‘have you found me some new inappropriate friends?’.
Andrew has faced calls from a powerful US congressional committee to give evidence about Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
The loss of Andrew’s titles meant his ex-wife reverted back to her maiden name of Sarah Ferguson, with the former duchess also criticised for writing to Epstein after his conviction calling him a ‘supreme friend’, despite publicly disowning him in the media.
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