Late one Saturday night, Lord Fellowes of West Stafford and Lady Hutchinson took a torchlight stroll to the Great Hall of Bickleigh Castle, where they discovered Lady Mountbatten enjoying pigeon pie and Christina Hill Williams (a former High Sheriff of Berkshire) admiring Lachlan MacKinnon’s decadent robes.
Had they gone back in time to the days of Henry VIII? Almost. The reality was that Robert and Sarah Hay were celebrating 10 years of their custodianship of the 11th-century castle with a Tudor Banquet, which made the 104 year old guest of honour, the Dowager Baroness Killearn, feel quite the spring chicken.