Pippa Middleton showed she’s very much in the festive spirit, donning a Christmas jumper to hand out awards for festive card designs.
Kate Middleton’s sister, 31, who is an ambassador for Mary Hare School in Newbury, a school for deaf children, donned red knitwear to give out awards to the school’s pupils.
In a snap shared by the Mary Hare Foundation on Twitter, a beaming Pippa is seen standing in front of a bedecked tree wearing a jumper adorned with a Christmas fir.
Pippa Middleton, 37, put on a very festive jumper to hand out awards to the pupils of the Mary Hare School for deaf children in Newbury, Berkshire, for which she is an ambassador
Pippa, mother to Arthur, two, has been fundraising for the school for several years, and has been particularly supportive of the Foundation’s effort to build a Primary School to accompany pupils in the next phase of their education.
Mary Hare School, which provides education for deaf children from Reception to Sixth Form, has put together a programme where packs of cards designed by pupils can be bought for £5 with the funds going to the Mary Hare fundraising effort.
The school has raised £8 millions in funds through its foundation since 1991 to modernise and build new facilities for the pupils.
The Duchess of Cambridge’s sister wore her hair styled straight in a neat blow-dry, and she beamed for the camera in a picture taken on Friday, as she delivered the awards to deserving pupils.
A move to the country? Pippa’s parents, Carole, 65, and Michael, 71, live close by in Bucklebury , in a £5million home, a price tag that is much more indicative of what a discerning buyer might expect to pay for a country home in that part of Berkshire
Let’s build our own! Bucklebury Park Farm, owned by Rupert Hartley-Russell, is thought to have gone under offer with Pippa Middleton and James Matthews its potential new owners – the 72-acre site is a relative bargain because it doesn’t have a family home on site
So far, fundraising efforts have amounted to £3,240,000 for new premises to be built. The Mary Hare Foundation is currently raising funds to build a primary school to accompany their students in the next phase of their education.
Pippa and her hedge-fund billionaire husband James Matthews are said to be close to snapping up 72 acres of land in leafy Buckinghamshire.
The couple, who currently reside in a £17 million six-bedroom home in London are thought to have grand designs for Bucklebury Farm Park, in the picturesque Pang Valley.
While no plans appear to have been submitted to the local council’s website – the last being made for a staff log cabin earlier this year – there’s plenty of room for a country abode on the former ‘pick your own’ farm.
The 72-acre rolling farm, which had a ‘wedding tractor’ to celebrate the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s marriage and is currently home to a 44-acre deer park, cafe, glamping pods and children’s play area, could accommodate the ultimate new-build country pile.
A 44-acre deer park is included alongside some livestock; agent Knight Frank said the tourist attraction offers scope for ‘redevelopment’
The farm’s current owner is Rupert Hartley Russell (pictured), an Old Etonian who is the son of Bucklebury’s Lord of the Manor, Willie Hartley-Russell. The family have declined to comment on the potential new owners
Pippa’s parents, Carole, 65, and Michael, 71, live close by in a £5million home, a price tag that is much more indicative of what a discerning buyer might expect to pay for a country home.
Originally on sale at £1.5 million, agents Knight Frank have confirmed it is under offer, but refused to comment further citing client confidentiality.
However, the agent has confirmed that further development is a possibility on the site, saying there’s ‘scope for redevelopment of the property for other uses’.
Presently, there’s also livestock on the farm alongside deer, should the couple want to continue the land’s history of farming.
A spokesman for James, 45, and Pippa, 37 – younger sister of the Duchess of Cambridge – described the potential purchase as no more than a ‘business opportunity’ for Mr Matthews, denying the couple had any plans to move there.
Pippa and hedge-fund billionaire husband James Matthews are said to be close to buying the land
But Bucklebury has been awash with speculation ever since Farm Park was put up for sale in October then suddenly withdrawn after less than a week.
A villager living in neighbouring Stanford Dingley commented: ‘We heard that the site had been offered to the Middletons before it went on the market.’
And at Bucklebury’s interior design store, Lynda Tillotson said the rumours hadn’t just ‘come out of thin air’. ‘It makes sense that Pippa and James would want to be close. It’s the perfect location for them to build a family home,’ she added.
And it would no doubt delight the Middleton parents, Carole, 65, and Michael, 71, to have Pippa, James and their two-year-old son Arthur on their doorstep.
The family home for their other grandchildren – Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and two-year-old Prince Louis – is 150 miles away in Norfolk.
Current owner of Farm Park is Old Etonian Rupert Hartley-Russell, the son of Bucklebury’s Lord of the Manor, Willie Hartley-Russell. He declined to comment.