Elspeth A. Lodge

William’s stag details revealed

Just a few days ago, Prince William gave an interview where he admitted he was proud of his little brother, Harry, for”outfoxing” the media when it came to the details regarding his stag party.”It’s always good to outfox the media,” he said. “But it was a military operation and my brother and I are very proud of how it went,” William said.

Though massive precautions were taken to keep the event details of the event under wraps reporters managed to uncover the coveted information a matter of days.

“It was a relatively tame stag weekend by a lot of people’s standards. It was just about a group of lads having a good time without their other halves,” said one of the Sun’s sources.

Below, the places, the people, the games — all revealed.
View Larger Map&w=620The Royals partied at Hartland Abbey, and the country estate that surrounds it. The Abbey is a beautiful manor that dates back to the 12th century in North Devon. It is the family home of the prince’s friend, George Stucley’s, reports the Sun, who was in attendance at Will’s party.”It is is surrounded by glorious gardens that straddle a private section of coastline.”

On the Friday night the guests arrived at the Abbey for what was to be a low-key evening before the festivities began : “They had booked out the whole estate to ensure privacy and Lady Stucley’s son George personally made sure that no one knew who was coming,” said a source to the Sun.

Regardless, “News of the secret stag weekend was yesterday spreading around the tiny village of Stoke next to the Hartland Abbey estate – often used as a backdrop to movies and setting for the BBC’s period drama Sense and Sensibility,”  the Sun reported.

“I was out in the back garden on Saturday afternoon and I heard cheering coming from the Abbey” a local woman said to the paper. “I wondered what was going on. It was a really beautiful afternoon.”

Mary Heard, who lives just outside the village said to the Sun: “It is a nice story and good that it puts Hartland on the map.” Another local woman said: “It’s good publicity for the village. What a coup to have the stag do of the future king right here on our doorstep!”

The guests were fairly predictable bunch, well known staples of both prince’s social lives; night club owner Guy Pelly, Thomas van Straubenzee, Ed and Hugh van Cutsem and Tom “Skippy” Inskip  were among the twenty or so friends of the Prince in attendance, said sources to the Sun.

“Clarence House are very quick to insist that absolutely nobody externally came in to the stag party. I think that’s their way of saying there were no strippers or burlesque dancers,” Duncan Larcombe of the Sun said to ABC News.

The Games: A variety including Skeet, shooting, surfing and drinking. On Saturday morning they had a hearty breakfast before heading outside for an hour’s clay pigeon shooting, reports the Sun. They had a competition to see who was the best shot, but it didn’t get too competitive. While there, they polished off several bottles of vintage port.

They allegedly spent the afternoon surfing at Speke Mill, a couple of miles to the south, and are reported to have used Blackpool Mill, an isolated beachside cottage, beside a stream on the Abbey estate, says the Mail.

Jordan Clark, 17, told the Mail he “was in the water at a secluded cove called Speke’s Mill when he saw the Prince. The student said: ‘I didn’t realize who it was at first but then George Stucley came over to me and said, “Can you watch out for these lads as they don’t really know what they are doing? ‘I looked over and realized it was William. They weren’t very good. They were just paddling about having a laugh.’”

Sources told the Sun that William and his friends played a series of drinking games, including “The Name Game.

“This involves each player having a post-it note stuck to their forehead with the name of a mystery celebrity scrawled on it. All then take turns asking questions in a bid to discover whose name appears on “their” note,” said the Sun. “They ‘pay’ for every question they ask by downing another drink.” The source said “Apparently the boys had written ‘The Queen’ on William’s post-it note. It took him several questions before he worked out why everyone was laughing.”

“At one stage one of William’s mates pulled out a chest wig and a hair piece and insisted that he put them on. High jinx, royal style,” Duncan Larcombe of the Sun told ABC News.

Kate Middleton’s childhood home, the ultimate souvenir?

Singleton & Daughter/Handout

West View, the former home of Kate Middleton, stands in the village of Southend Bradfield, U.K.

The childhood home of royal bride-to-be Kate Middleton will be offered for sale at an auction about a month after the wedding and may fetch as much as 550,000 pounds ($888,000), according to the company handling the transaction.

Kate Middleton’s famous see-through dress already sold at auction for a hefty £78,000, but there’s another ultimate souvenir about to hit the market— her childhood home— a four-bedroom Victorian Villa in the Berkshire village of Bradfield Southend.

Dudley Singleton & Daughter, the auctioneer of the home, says the abode might not be as popular as the dress in terms of a souvenir: “It’s not the same as buying something like the dress (modeled by Miss Middleton as a student) that sold at auction recently…” he said. “It’s a house after all, so I wouldn’t expect the price to be pushed up significantly.What I do expect though is that any publicity around the sale of the house will make more people in that price bracket aware of what is a very nice property, and that might mean more bidders,” he said to the Telegraph.

The home, called West View, is just two miles away from the Middleton families current abode and is currently leased to tenants.

The Queen visits William’s work place in Anglesey

Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

The Queen toured the airbase where William works, meeting staff and families and was given a guided tour of a Sea King search and rescue helicopter by Prince William.

Prince William escorted the Queen and Prince Philip around his workplace on April 1, where he toils as an RAF search and rescue pilot in Anglesey, North Wales.

Phil Noble/Reuters

Combination picture of Queen Elizabeth arriving on a windy day to visit her grandson, Prince William, at RAF Valley, in north Wales Apr. 1, 2011.

After greeting his grandmother with a cheery “Hello Gran” and polite kiss, he noted that the Queen’s bright red hat was ready for take-off  in the 50 mph winds, reports the U.K.’s Daily Record. “Have you still got your hat?” he said to the Queen as she arrived,  and kissed her on the cheek. He then showed the Queen and Prince an RAF Sea King helicopter and told her about his job.

Paul Hackett / Reuters

William’s mates at work play jokes on him with wedding paraphernalia; like serving him drinks with him and Kate on the mug.

Winchman Sergeant Ed Griffiths, says to the media the Prince is like any other member of the team, but admits they play jokes on him from time to time: “We’ve spent a few pounds on Kate and William memorabilia and secreted it around the place. He might open a locker and find stuff, or find his own face on a cushion or see his own face on a cup when you give him his tea.”

According to the Daily Record he dubbed his flight team the “fourth emergency service.” William said “It’s great that you get to go out and actually save someone’s life or at least make a difference to somebody when you know they are in trouble.” He also commented the job is “emotional, physical and very demanding,” adding that the four person team is a “big family in the sky.”

It’s not shocking that after plans for Prince William’s wild water sporting stag party were leaked to the press Prince Harry and friend, nightclub owner Guy Pelly, decided a plan B must take effect.

“Using his connections to Princes Harry and William, Guy Pelly has poured young, rich, reckless blue blood into the nightclub scene”

A low key party reportedly, a “men only bash,” was held at a friend’s country estate this weekend, just outside London, reports the Telegraph.”I can confirm that Prince William’s stag party has taken place” said the princes’ office to People magazine. But, said it was “an entirely private event” and they will not comment further.

William and around twenty of his closest friends allegedly gathered on Friday night. The Van Cutsem family owns an estate in Norfolk and the Telegraph speculates this was the venue of the event. Hugh Van Cutsem is the father of William’s god daughter Grace.

Everyone at the party was reportedly sworn to secrecy and no one is sure what took place inside. Some of Prince William’s friends in attendance, allegedly, were James Meade, who William met at Eton, Thomas van Straubenzee who went to Ludgrove Prep School with William in Berkshire and a few or all of the Van Cutsem brothers.

Hugh Van Cutsem, father of William’s god daughter