Overview

• A fire on May 27 engulfed and destroyed an unoccupied late-18th-century farmhouse on the Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire.
• Northamptonshire police have launched an arson inquiry to determine whether vandals deliberately set the blaze.
• Estate officials have declared the remaining structure unsafe and plan to demolish the stone shell of the farmhouse.
• Charles Spencer and chief conservator Adey Greeno expressed dismay and condemned the destruction as a senseless act of vandalism.
• The Althorp Estate, the Spencer family seat since the 16th century, attracts up to 150,000 visitors annually to Princess Diana’s memorial site.