Highgrove House near Tetbury in Gloucestershire is The Duke and Duchess of Cornwall’s family home. The Duchy of Cornwall owns Highgrove, and bought the house, garden and nearby farmland (now known as Duchy Home Farm) in 1980.
The Duke chose to live in Gloucestershire because of its easy access to London, Wales and other parts of Britain, including the western counties where the Duchy has most of its properties.
The Duke hosts many briefings and receptions at Highgrove, partly facilitated by the construction of the Orchard Room, which was built in Cotswold stone in 2000.
A specially built reed bed sewage system, much loved by dragonflies at its treatment end, is used for all Highgrove's waste. Rare trees and plants are grown for future generations to enjoy, and heritage seeds are planted to ensure these varieties continue to flourish.
This ethically and environmentally conscious approach is carried through to the management of the house, where energy-saving bulbs and solar lights are used where appropriate, and all kitchen waste goes through the composting system. Biomass boilers and ground & air source heat pumps provide heating and hot water.
The Gardens at Highgrove embody HRH The Prince of Wales’s environmental philosophy
The Duke is particularly proud of his garden and, since the early 1980s, he has regularly invited various groups, schools and charities to enjoy a tour. Approximately 250 groups visit each year.
Today, after considerable time and effort, the gardens at Highgrove and the Duchy Home Farm are flagship examples of the organic movement, both in terms of their environmental sustainability and their natural beauty.
Poundbury is an urban extension to the Dorset county town of Dorchester, built on the principles of architecture and urban planning as advocated by The Prince of Wales in ‘A Vision of Britain’.
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Most of the 27,300 hectares that make up Dartmoor have been owned by the Duchy since its creation in 1337, and in modern times it is agriculture rather than mineral extraction that dominates the use of the land.
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