Rambling through Madonna’s back garden

Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon took a walk on the wild side through a hotly-disputed piece of celebrity turf: the Ritchies country estate.

“I am strolling through Madonna and Guy Ritchie‘s back garden and am pleased to report that, as you would expect from the well-preserved queen of pop and multi-millionaire film director, it is beautiful and immaculately kept.

There are bluebells blossoming either side of me, and the calming chatter of birds can be heard in the woodland all around. In the distance, a hawk hovers over miles of rolling English countryside. I do wish you could see it, too.”

Click on Full Article to read the entire story published today by the Telegraph.

The day I rambled through Madonna’s back garden

Bryony Gordon takes a walk on the wild side through a hotly-disputed piece of celebrity turf

I am strolling through Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s back garden and am pleased to report that, as you would expect from the well-preserved queen of pop and multi-millionaire film director, it is beautiful and immaculately kept.

There are bluebells blossoming either side of me, and the calming chatter of birds can be heard in the woodland all around. In the distance, a hawk hovers over miles of rolling English countryside. I do wish you could see it, too.

Actually, you’re just as entitled to be here as I am. I am standing on a public footpath that forms part of the Wessex Ridgeway – a walk that is popular with ramblers ? and cuts right through the couple’s 1,200-acre Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire. Anyone with walking boots, a kagoule and an Ordnance Survey map can stroll through it any time they like.

The Ritchies ? who bought the eight-bedroom former home of Cecil Beaton two years ago for £9 million ? have never objected to the presence of the footpath; while the house is visible from the track, the size of the estate means that they can retain their privacy. Indeed, the couple have even taken care to erect smart, royal green signposts along the route that politely ask visitors to keep their dogs on leads in the interests of wildlife conservation.

But lately, public access issues have been troubling the 45-year-old singer and her husband. The Countryside Agency, under the new “Right to Roam” legislation, has begun mapping areas classed as mountain, moorland, heath and downland in order to open them up to the public, later this year. As part of this, 17 parcels of the Ritchies’ property have been included. Soon, fans and members of the press may be able to stray off the Wessex Ridgeway and on to land just 100 yards from their home.

The couple claim that such changes would violate “private and family life, and their home” under the European Convention on Human Rights, and say that, anyhow, the agency has got it wrong – much of the parcelled land is actually semi-improved grassland or is fenced in. A five-day public inquiry into the matter began on Wednesday, with the agency stating: “There is no exception for those who become famous.” In the countryside, as the Ritchies are discovering, there is no such thing as velvet rope.

Madonna has found herself painted as a selfish American diva who wants to stop innocent ramblers enjoying the English countryside.

But it is evident that this particular group of people are not really the problem. Trevor and Christine, two walkers from York stopping for a spot of lunch in the nearby village of Tollard Royal, tell me that “most ramblers really aren’t that interested in celebrity. Until now, we didn’t even know Madonna lived in the UK, let alone that we would be passing through her land. We might give her a wave but, to be honest, we are more interested in the beautiful view”.

Madonna, in an interview last year, said: “When we bought Ashcombe, we did think, ‘Oh, there’s a path, people are going to be bothering us all the time’. But no one did. I haven’t got anything bad to say about the ramblers.”

On arrival at Ashcombe, it becomes clear that the Ritchies might be more concerned about visitors such as myself: members of the press. Other than a few builders, re-roofing the house, and a local man, walking his dogs, the only ramblers I encounter during my walk are journalists. Indeed, when the Telegraph photographer’s car becomes stuck in some mud just outside the estate, and we have to call upon Madonna’s gamekeeper to tow us out, he asks: “Which newspaper are you from, then?”

After he has rescued us, he explains: “It’s been made out that the boss wants to get rid of the public footpaths already on the estate, but that’s not the case at all. They just don’t want people roaming all over their land. You wouldn’t want people nosing around your back garden, would you?”

I am tempted to answer that my back garden is a small patio containing two pot plants, not a thousand acres of beautiful countryside, but I suppose he has a point.

Article by Bryony Gordon, telegraph.co.uk