JD Vance visits posh Cotswolds farm shop Daylesford Organic as his huge security convoy annoys locals after sending countryside into lockdown

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Have YOU seen JD Vance in the Cotswolds?
JD Vance has been spotted visiting a farm shop dubbed one of the poshest in the UK after he arrived in the Cotswolds for a family holiday.
Locals have been left disgruntled after the US Vice President's massive motorcade, made up of 18 vehicles, sent the countryside into lockdown today.
Residents have been faced with road closures and security checkpoints manned by police with sniffer dogs - as Vance heads to a country manor in the hamlet of Dean.
Photos shared on social media now show his security convoy making a stop at the Daylesford Organic farm shop, near Chipping Norton.
Several large black SUVs carrying people believed to be Secret Service agents were seen parked on the driveway.
Other photos show Vance inside the shop as he was shown around by Tory 'super-donor' and billionaire digger boss Lord Antony Bamford.
Lord Bamford's wife, Lady Carole, set up Daylesford Organic in 2002, with the shop previously hitting the headlines for charging £950 for a wicker-style blanket basket.
JD Vance is believed to have stayed in the shop for around three hours and to have taken particular interest in the bread counter, where he was seen trying samples.
JD Vance has been spotted visiting a farm shop dubbed one of the poshest in the UK after he arrived in the Cotswolds for a family holiday
JD Vance's vehicles were spotted outside Daylesford Organic in the Cotswolds
Vance was shown around by Tory 'super-donor' and billionaire digger boss Lord Antony Bamford
One person posted on social media: 'Stopped off at a farm shop...so did JD Vance. Security everywhere.'
Another added: 'JD Vance decided to go to Daylesford Farm [at] the same time as us.'
Daylesford Organic, which is situated on 3,500 acres of farmland, is known for its upmarket goods.
Items on sale when the Daily Mail visited in October last year included Swedish side tables priced at £3,500 each and a £6,950 burnt cedar wood 'kindled' bowl.
Meanwhile, an influencer was also left baffled in March when she paid an eye-watering £37 for just four grocery items.
Vance's visit to Daylesford Organic comes after his motorcade was seen passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon.
All entrances to the hamlet of Dean - two roads and three public footpaths - were subsequently blocked off.
Only residents of the hamlet were allowed in and out, dog walkers were diverted, and those entering the area were subject to searches.
Today, one local councillor labelled the heavy security presence 'intimidating' and compared the sight of guards in suits and sunglasses patrolling quiet lanes to scenes from Men In Black.
Vance was said to have shown particular interest in the bread counter where he tried samples
The outside of the farm shop which is considered one of the poshest in the UK due to its high prices
Vance's visit to Daylesford Organic comes after his motorcade was seen passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon
Daylesford Organic, which is situated on 3,500 acres of farmland, is known for its upmarket goods
'We understand that people do need security but I think they haven't been discreet about it,' said councillor Andy Graham.
'I think that tends to generate more concern than is necessary. Roads have been closed up.'
Mr Vance arrived in the Cotswolds today with his wife, Usha, and children - Ewan, eight, Vivek, five, and Mirabel, three - after the family drove up from London following a private tour of Hampton Court yesterday.
Mr Vance rocked up at Henry VIII's former residence for a morning tour - forcing the site to delay its public opening to 12pm.
He now appears to have finished his official business after making a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy.
Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other's families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting.
The massive security operation surrounding Dean Manor has prompted its owner to apologise to neighbours for the disruption.
Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home with her husband Johnny in 2017, told villagers that she was 'so sorry for the circus' set to take place across the coming days, The Telegraph reported.
The manor house was built in 1702 for the MP Thomas Rowney and is close to Jeremy Clarkson's Diddly Squat farm.
Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery.
There has been intense activity around the manor house for days.
JD Vance's 18-vehicle motorcade passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon
Police have closed off all roads and footpaths into the hamlet of Dean, where the US Vice President is staying with his family at Dean Manor, an 18th-century country house
The vice presidential convoy making its way through Chipping Norton
Officers are now checking the identity of residents trying to pass through the security cordon, watched on by dozens of Secret Service agents
The motorcade is accompanied by motorcycle outriders to clear traffic
On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping 'in and out' driveway, two suited security guards have been checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans.
Councillor Andy Graham, who has lived in the area for 11 years, questioned the use of police resources.
'I just worry about the number of police cars because at the end of the day they should be doing other things in the Thames Valley area,' he said.
'I'm disappointed that the authorities didn't keep me in the loop. I was aware of the holiday but I wasn't told how long it was going to be.
'I don't need the details because they can't do that but giving us a bit more of a steer so that I could reassure my constituents a bit more would have been good. I'm just a bit miffed about it I suppose.
'I know there are some planned protests tomorrow from the locals. They have strong feelings. They are not happy. There is clearly concern over it. It's the talking point of the community.
In the nearby village of Chadlington, one woman called the high security a 'waste of resources'.
'To be honest it's the cost of it, the cost of the police, it's obviously impacting Thames Valley and therefore everyone,' she said.
'We get permanent disruption from Diddly Squat Farm. It's a real impact. I have one friend who had to go to Dean and she said the security was madness.
'Hopefully it will blow over because she was feeding someone's cats, and you have to have your cars searched to go in.
'She just turned around, she said 'you know what I'm have to make other arrangements'.'
Mr Vance has made his presence felt with a massive security cohort
Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home (pictured) with her husband Johnny in 2017, has told villagers that she was 'so sorry for the circus' set to take place
The manor house was built in 1702 for Thomas Rowney, an Oxford MP
Another couple, US citizens living in the UK, attempted to visit the town of Dean because of JD Vance but were turned away.
'I heard about the visit and just typed into ChatGPT 'Where is JD Vance staying' and it gave me the name. So we said let's just do a drive by, so we came here because we were curious about the area he was staying in.'
'We were being nosey. But the security wouldn't let us past the blockade. We sort of looked and said can we drive down there and they said well you can if you are going to visit or somebody, because they have a lots of people.
'I said no actually we just wanted to go to one of the Cafes there and they said well no we can't let you through.'
She added: 'I'm saddened in a way that the Cotswolds will be on the radar of Americans and particularly MAGA type Americans.
A long-term Chadlington resident said the area had become 'pretentious' and 'chock-a-block' with outsiders.
'I have been here for 30 years, it's yet another come to the Cotswolds, it's all become a bit chock a block really,' she said. 'We are just all a bit fed up with it all.
'It's all become very pretentious. There's so much money around. It used to be a really nice working village.
'For local people it's a pain in the a***. Because people think it is somewhere to play and they go off and forget that it's actually a working village.
'The traffic is unbelievable. The road block is bad, just this morning coming down, my road the traffic was ridiculous. I was trying to reverse out and it was all blocked up. And it's so narrow here.'
Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other's families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting. Pictured: Mr Vance and Mr Lammy in Rome in May this year
On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping 'in and out' driveway, two suited security guards were checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans
There has been intense activity around the manor house for days
Another local said a large antennae placed behind the house, perhaps a telecoms tower, is 'humming constantly'.
But one man seemed almost entirely unaware of the upcoming visit.
When asked about Mr Vance, he remarked: 'Who? I'm unsure who that is.'
As the Daily Mail reported last month, the tiny village of Charlbury - which is near Dean - is home to The Bull, named Britain's best pub in the National Pub of the Year at the National Pub and Bar Awards.
Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford.
Meanwhile, the wider Cotswolds have become the latest hot ticket with Americans seeking what they see as a traditional cosy English escape.
Ellen DeGeneres, the US talk show host, is reportedly deliberately fleeing her home in the area ahead of Vance's arrival after leaving the US following Trump's election.
Fashion journalist Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4 last month of the cosy English haven: 'It's just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable.
'It's an incredibly beautiful area because it's being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in.
'Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it's been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York.
Despite their differences in political opinions, Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a 'friend' and someone who 'completely relates' to him.
The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds - both being raised without their fathers - and their religion: Mr Lammy is an Anglican; Mr Vance a baptised Catholic since 2019.
Chevening (pictured), a 400-year-old Grade I listed mansion, has been the de-facto summer residence of the Foreign Secretary for decades, after being gifted to the UK in 1959
Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a 'friend' and someone who 'completely relates' to him. The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds - both being raised without their fathers - and their religion
Ahead of Mr Vance's visit, which a source claimed would include a 'short bilateral meeting', the Foreign Office said ministerial engagements would be announced in 'the usual way'.
In March, the Foreign Secretary and his wife Nicola Green visited the vice-president's official residence in Washington, the Naval Observatory, for a private meeting without officials.
The Foreign Secretary told The Guardian earlier this month he and Mr Vance spent a 'wonderful hour and a half' together over drinks at the US Embassy in Italy during the inauguration of the new Pope, Leo XIV.
It comes shortly after President Trump visited Scotland, spending time teeing off at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire in between holding diplomatic talks with the Prime Minister.
Announcing plans for a protest, the Stop Trump Coalition alliance said: 'We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.
'JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.
'We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.'
Mr Vance has continued commenting on politics during his time in the UK, and said yesterday that the US was working to 'schedule' a meeting between Mr Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.
European leaders are frustrated at the decision to exclude President Zelensky from the upcoming US-Russia summit and fear it could lead to an agreement that is harmful to Ukrainian interests.
'One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with (Volodymyr) Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change,' Vance said during an interview on Fox News program 'Sunday Morning Futures.'
'We're at a point now where we're trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,' Vance said when asked about his expectations for the Alaska summit on August 15.
In the USA, the Cotswolds has been dubbed 'the Hamptons of the UK' due to its popularity with the celebrity set
Pictured: A small protest in Chevening ahead of Mr Vance's visit
The vice president, in an interview conducted ahead of last week's announcement that the US and Russian presidents would meet this Friday, said the US was going to 'try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with.'
Vance added: 'It's not going to make anybody super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it.'
US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested on CNN that Zelensky could attend the summit.
He was asked whether Zelensky might join Trump and Putin on Friday.
'Yes, I certainly think it's possible,' he said. 'Certainly, there can't be a deal that everybody that's involved in it doesn't agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it's a high priority to get this war to end.'
In a flurry of diplomacy, Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days including Kyiv's main backers Germany, Britain and France.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday he hoped and assumed that Zelensky would attend the summit.
Whitaker said the decision would ultimately be Trump's to make.
'If he thinks that that is the best scenario to invite Zelensky, then he will do that,' he said, adding that 'no decision has been made to this point.'