It has been over a year since Diana's former chef spoke of his disgust at the "overgrown mess" of the late Princess of Wales's grave site within the Althorp estate in Northamptonshire. But now, the island where Diana is buried is set to receive a multi-million dollar facelift as part of the Spencer family estate gardens’ first major revamp in 350 years.
A statement on the Althorp website describes the “ambitious” project, which will be overseen by Earl Spencer’s third wife, Lady Karen.
It will include an “extensive redesign” of the Oval Lake, where she was laid to rest in 1997, to “honour her memory”.
It follows criticisms from her former personal chef, Darren McGrady, that her burial place had become neglected.
He visited the 500-year-old estate, which has been home to the Spencer family for 18 generations, in August 2014, and posted a number of pictures of a moss-covered memorial to the princess on Twitter with the words, “Sad to see Earl Spencer has neglected Diana’s resting place. Please tidy up the vegetation on the island”.
Mr McGrady, who now lives in Texas, also wrote in a blog post on his personal website, "It was a mess and in my opinion no place for a Princess.
"The lake was full of algae and the trees and bushes on the island were an overgrown mess looking like they had never been trimmed since the day she was buried on the island.
"Even the memorial with blistered paint looked more like a ‘tatty old garden shed at the bottom of the garden’ than a shrine to the most photographed woman in the world."
In response to the images that would upset those touched by Diana's life, a spokesman for Althorp Estate said: "We have 14 'Planting Stones' in the Park, and they all become parts of the ancient landscape over time, rather than being scrubbed clean.
"The algae was present last year because of that summer's exceptional heat – something that has not recurred this year.
"The island where the late Princess is buried has always had a full growth of mature trees, which give a rich panoply of foliage in the summer, which intentionally lends privacy to the Princess's final resting place.
"The Temple is maintained and assessed on an annual basis."
The precise location of Diana’s grave has never been made public, and visitors paying up to £18.50 to enter the estate are not permitted on the island.
It is currently owned by Diana's brother Charles, the ninth Earl Spencer, who has overseen it since her father’s death in 1992, and features 36 specially planted oak trees – one for each year of her life.
Work to substantially remodel the island will be completed in time for the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death, in August 2017, and coincides with the opening of a new memorial garden at Kensington Palace alongside an exhibition on former princes of Wales’ life.
