Althorp House, Princess Diana’s childhood home, has been the subject of major excavation in recent weeks as the Earl Spencer attempts to learn more about the remains of a Roman villa that was first discovered on the estate in the past century. The 5,000+ hectare property in Northamptonshire has been in the Spencer family since 1508 when they purchased the land after earning their fortune from sheep farming. It is the current residence of the 9th Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s younger brother, who lives in Althorp House with his third wife, Karen, Countess Spencer and their 10-year-old daughter, Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer.
Earl Spencer posted an Instagram photo of a group of archaeologists around a long table outside his home. “Archaeologists are getting ready to enjoy the end-of-dig feast tonight at Althorp,” he wrote. “They have been here for three weeks unearthing the Roman villa which has been here for maybe 100 AD and is believed to have been inhabited for several hundred years… It is amazing to think of these people who were enjoying Althorp, over 1,000 years before my family first came to farm here in the 1480s.”
Earl Spencer chose to excavate the site after immersing all his life in the history of the Roman villa discovered on the grounds of the estate. Earlier this year, he said on Instagram, “Since my childhood, I have been fascinated by the story of an ancient Roman villa which lies under a field in Althorp.” He continued, “Discovery for the first time a century ago, it has remained an enigma ever since. Thanks to a brilliant team of experts, we are now on the verge of unlocking the secrets who resided in Althorp more than a millennium before my family settled there.”
The findings were published as they were made on Spencer1508.com, a website dedicated to “sharing all the excited developments on the Althorp estate” including video clips and a weekly newsletter. Among the discoveries made on the estate are the walls of the old villa, as well as a Roman coin dating back to the reign of Constantine the Great and representing Romulus and Remus.
The Roman Villa is one of the many archaeological discoveries to occur at Althorp House. Other discoveries include the wreckage of a Wellington bomber that fell from the sky during World War II. In 2021, Earl Spencer gathered a team to search for an Anglo-Saxon village buried in the grounds of Althorp House, excavations which were the area of a Channel 4 program dubbed Ancient Secrets of Althorp: Charles Spencer. In an article that appeared at the time in the Daily Telegraph, Earl Spencer said, “as the park was fenced off several hundred years ago, the land therein has not been worked or build on since. They have kept all their secrets, undisturbed by archaeological excavations until today.”
Photo: Hulton Archive // Getty Images
The Spencer account added that as a result of the show, he had developed “a strong taste for archaeology,” stating, “I have already identified other points in the domain that I hope to excavate, so that the domain of Althorp can deliver to the whole world the extraordinary remains of unknown characters of past centuries. I hop my grandfather would agree with that.”
Lady Diana Spencer grew up in Althorp House with her two older sisters and her younger brother. She is buried on a small island in the center of a pool in the gardens of the house, overlooked by a Doric-style temple bearing her name. Althorp’s heir is the Earl Spencer’s eldest son, Louis, Viscount Althorp.
Photo: Tim Graham // Getty Images
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