A Huntingdon farmer is locked in a battle at court with his mother over his family estate.
Peter Horsford, a farmer in Cambridgeshire, states he was forced to give up an ordinary childhood on the basis that the farm would be his in time. From school age, Horsford laboured on the farm that encompasses 540 acres but Marian Horsford, 88, claims this is not true. His mother is insisting on a greater sum than the £2.5 million awarded to her as her share, stating that his labour was typical for a farm boy.
Horsford, 54, is now refusing to pay his mother an increased settlement, and accusing her in front of the High Court of “reneging on her lifetime of assurances.”
The ongoing dispute started in 2016 back when Horsford’s mother retired from the farming partnership established for their family. At this juncture she requested payment owed for her share in the estate, which includes a wind power farm. Separated from Horsford’s father, a dementia sufferer in 2011, his mother is now seeking independent means a greater share of the estate’s value.
Horsford commented that although he enjoyed working with both his father and grandfather on the farm, he was deprived of a normal social life growing up. His mother states that her son had acquired wealth through the family business but that no understanding that the family estate would be his to inherit was ever concrete. The case continues.
