While it’s well known that The Duchess of Cambridge and her husband Prince William split their time between an apartment at Kensington Palace and a dreamy 10 bedroomed country home in Norfolk, not many people know that Kate herself grew up in a quaint but budget friendly home in Berkshire.
Located in Bradfield Southend, Kate’s first home was actually her parents second, after the happy couple had originally lived together in a small but quaint flat prior to tying the knot.
One year before marrying, Carole and Michael Middleton purchased West View for the bargain price of just £34,700 in 1979.
Located just across the road from the village green and only a few yards down the road from the Queen’s Head pub, the home offered plenty of potential to the young couple and the future they hoped to share.
Set back from the road, the property is where Kate spent the first 13 years of her life, with many happy childhood memories forged in the spacious walls and dreamy garden.
The property itself has previously been a large Victorian house and converted into two semi-detached properties during the Edwardian era.
At the time of purchase, the house had three bedrooms on the first floor, but as a keen property developer, with an interest in restoring houses, Michael wanted to improve on his investment in the house and set about renovating it.
To do this, he converted one of the bedrooms into a bathroom, even going so far as to do the plumbing himself, before going on to build another two bedrooms by converting the loft space.
He also chose to extend the property a little further to cater for his growing family, opting to extend the kitchen and add a playroom to offer more space for Kate and little sister Pippa to play.
Thanks to the property’s ideal location, while living at West View, Kate was perfectly situated to attend the highly praised local toddler group, pre-school and Brownies in St Peter’s Church hall ( the Duchess was a member of the 1st St. Andrew’s pack) before she went on to attend Bradfield Church of England primary school, which was handily located just next door to the property.
After spending 13 happy years at the home, the family soon moved, with Kate’s parents selling their bargain home for 4 and a half times it’s original value, at £158,000.
Since then the home has been sold several times, most recently in 2011, when it was worth £485,000.
According to today’s estimates, if the property were to go on sale again, it was be worth around £780,000.
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