'The final straw': Earl Spencer says fly-tipping forced sale of family's farmland

The family has farmed the land since 1893, but say after years of having waste dumped on the property, they were forced to put it up for sale.

It is understood to have been bought by Persimmon Homes last year for £60 million.

Writing in The Daily Mail, Earl Spencer said: “This wasn’t litter, nor the odd fridge dumped in a gateway – it was lorry-loads of construction waste tipped in the dead of night, asbestos sheeting left to rot in a hedgerow and, on one occasion, 60 burnt-out cars stacked on what used to be good pasture.

“Three years ago, the Althorp team had to tackle half-a-ton of plastic bags thrown over a wall. It was from a local restaurant, and consisted of rotten meat and putrefying human waste.

“The final straw came last year when the 250-year-old farmhouse on the land was set on fire and had to be demolished.

“The place had only been empty for a heartbeat, as we struggled to find anyone brave enough to live in this Mad Max landscape – but criminals took that opportunity to burn the historic farmhouse down.”

The Earl claims six skips are kept on the Althorpe estate to collect dumped waste, and a previous fly-tipper who faced a £1,000 fine said it would not deter him from doing it again.

He added: “To most people, fly-tipping means a sofa on a verge or bin bags where they should not be. On farmland it is a hydra.

“A padlock is cut in the small hours; a lorry reverses through a gateway; by first light there is a load in the field that nobody will own up to.

“You cannot plough round it. It leaches into ditches. Livestock go and investigate it. If the farmer leaves it where it lies, he is the one breaking the law.

“Clear it and word gets round that the gate is worth a second visit.”

The farmland sits alongside the family’s nearby Althorpe estate, which was Princess Diana’s childhood home and now final resting place.

A family home on the Dallington land was gifted to the people of Northampton in 1919 by Earl Spencer’s great-grandfather, to be used by local servicemen wounded in the First World War. He kept the surrounding fields, which belonged to the Spencer family until their sale last year.

Now, the land is set to make up part of the Dallington Grange housing estate, which when completed will consist of some 3,000 homes and two new schools.

West Northamptonshire Council had more than 21,000 cases of fly-tipping between April 2024 and April 2025.

It says it investigates all incidents, and recognises fly-tipping as a serious criminal offence.

A spokesman said: “The council is committed to taking robust enforcement action against offenders. As with all criminal offences, any enforcement action must be supported by sufficient evidence and meet the necessary legal and evidential thresholds.

“It is also important to note the removal of fly-tipped waste from private land is the responsibility of the landowner. However, the council will continue to investigate reported offences and pursue enforcement action against offenders where evidence permits.”