Mother, 88, sues her own son, 54, over £6m country pile

An 88-year-old mother is suing her own son in a bitter court fight over the £6 million family country pile he claims was promised to him ever since he was a boy. 

Peter Horsford, 54, told the High Court he sacrificed a normal childhood spent playing with his friends to labour on the the 540-acre family pile in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on the basis that he would eventually inherit the land. 

But he says his elderly mother, Marian Horsford, has ‘reneged on her lifetime of assurances’ -and the pair are locked in a bitter court clash over her £2.5m share of the prosperous estate – part of which is rented out as a lucrative wind farm.

Marian Hosford

Peter Horsford (left), 54, told the High Court he sacrificed a normal childhood spent playing with his friends to labour on the the 540-acre family pile in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire on the basis that he would eventually inherit the lan

Mr Horsford insists he was 'groomed' to take over from his father and even opted to have an eye removed following a golfing accident to get back to his farm as soon as possible

Mr Horsford insists he was ‘groomed’ to take over from his father and even opted to have an eye removed following a golfing accident to get back to his farm as soon as possible

Mr Horsford insists he was ‘groomed’ to take over from his father and even opted to have an eye removed following a golfing accident to get back to his farm as soon as possible.   

He says he was given farm-themed toys as a boy, and claims he was repeatedly promised in the following decades that ‘this will be yours one day’.    

Peter says he should not have to pay a penny for her share due to promises that were made to him – and if she is allowed to demand the payment, the farm could well have to be sold, taking away ‘his life’s work.

Marian, who until recently lived on a farmhouse on the land, split from Peter’s father in 2011 and denies promising him her share of the farm – telling the High Court that the work he did as a child was normal for a farm boy.        

Judge Murray Rosen heard that the dispute between mother and son was sparked after Marian retired from the family farming partnership in December 2016.

She is claiming more than £2.5 million from her son for ‘the value of her outgoing partner’s share’ – plus around £23,000 in past income profits.

Peter’s father, Davis, who suffers from dementia and lives in a care home, is unable to clarify who is owed the land. 

He insists it was always his parents’ intention that he would inherit the entire family holding, sited around College Farm and Whitleather Lodge Farm, near Huntingdon.

The pile includes two farmhouses and a barn conversion, with Peter and his wife, Gail, having made their home in a lodge at Whitleather – which is in his name.

While his parents until recently lived in the College Farm house, to which he lays no claim. He insists however that all of the 540 acres of land should be his by right.

His mother’s demand to be paid for her stake in the family partnership goes against her lifetime promise and also risks breaking up the 50-year-old farm, he claims.

From the witness box, Peter told how he worked long hours on the land as a boy, grafting alongside his dad in the summer holidays when his school pals were out having fun.

‘I enjoyed it, but I didn’t see much of my friends during the holidays at all,’ he told the judge.

‘I was always working with my father or grandfather from very early in the morning until the evening.

‘I enjoyed being with my dad but at the age of ten or eleven I didn’t have a big social life.’

From his childhood he had been ‘groomed’ to take over the farm, he explained.

‘I’m not saying that they forced me but they encouraged me throughout my life to take that direction for the future, from when I was a child being given toys,’ he said.

Peter’s QC, Christopher Stoner, claimed the alleged assurances given by Marian and Davis that he would inherit were ‘clear and unequivocal’.

‘As a child and teenager, he worked on the farm every summer, carrying out increasingly onerous and complex tasks for little more than pocket money,’ the barrister said.

In written evidence, Peter claimed that marrying Gail ‘is the only important decision I have taken in my life which is not referable to the farm and the promises my parents made from my early years’.

He began working full time on the farm in 1987 – after a stint at agricultural college – and has continued to work ‘long hours’ since then.

‘In 1997, after his golfing accident, Peter decided to have his eye removed so that he could return to his work on the farm as quickly as possible,’ said Mr Stoner.

For the past 18 years, Peter has effectively run the farm on his own, claimed his barrister.

But his mum denies going back on her word and says her son has suffered no real ‘detriment’ through his labours over the years.

He became a wealthy man due to working with his parents, claimed Marian’s QC, Stephen Jourdain.

‘This is not a case of someone who worked hard for many years for low pay and without other reward, quite the contrary,’ he told the court.

‘Peter benefited very substantially from the choice he made to farm with his parents.’

Mr Jourdain disputed that Peter’s parents made repeated promises to hand him the farm, highlighting evidence that Marian had considered leaving her stake in the farm to Peter’s sister, Liz.

Mr Jourdain accepted that in the past there was a ‘family understanding’ that Peter would probably inherit his parents’ farming interests.

But this was never ‘set in stone’ and he was always likely to have to pay his sisters something for this windfall, the barrister said.

In any case, Marian’s alleged promise was to leave Peter her interests when she dies, the QC added, pointing out: ‘But Marian has not died.’

Much of the work Peter did in his youth was normal among farming families, suggested Mr Jourdain.

‘It’s standard in every farming family for children to help out,’ the barrister said, with Peter replying: ‘That depends on the tasks you are asked to do.’

Mr Jourdain said Peter’s sister, Liz, claimed she, Peter and their sister Helen had all habitually helped out on the farm outside school hours.

‘I don’t remember Liz on the farm at all,’ Peter told the judge.

The trial continues.