Grandmother of new lord of the manor shuns £50 million mansion for family home on Cornish estate

Standing outside her pebbledashed former council house, Barbara Binns is adamant that she could never be persuaded to move out of her humble home.

However, the 82-year-old pensioner cannot help but laugh as she concedes her grandson’s offer to rehouse her in his recently acquired £50 million Grade II listed mansion is sorely tempting.

“Ever since he was a little boy we walked in the woods surrounding Penrose House,” she said, pointing towards the towering sycamores and oak trees that border the manor’s 1,536-acre estate a mile from her terraced home in Cornwall.

“I’m so pleased for him. He’s as good as gold - he was a care worker. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.”

Her grandson is Jordan Adlard who aged 31 used a DNA test to prove he was the illegitimate son of Charles Rogers, the aristocratic owner of the Penrose estate who died aged 62 last August after succumbing to drug addiction.

After taking up residence in the 17th Century home last October, the new lord of the manor amended his birth certificate so his surname read “Adlard Rogers”. As well as a new name, he receives up to £1,000 a week as heir to the Rogers Family Trust.

It is a rags to riches tale that is as remarkable as it is moving. Mr Rogers had a brief affair with Julie Adlard when she was about 20. The family always knew her son, who grew up mostly with his grandmother, was a Rogers.

The Telegraph can reveal Mrs Binns took him to meet Mr Rogers after the boy, then aged eight, was told who his father was.

A close family friend said: “Jordan said he wanted to speak to his dad. His grandmother took him to the manor, knocked on the door and told Mr Rogers, ‘This is your son.’ But, Charles said he didn’t want to talk to him and slammed the door.”

Mrs Binns, however, insists her grandson was not motivated by any interest in inheritance, instead he wanted to establish the truth about his heritage.

“He always wanted to prove he was a Rogers,” Mrs Binns told The Telegraph from her home in Helston. “Jordan doesn’t care about money.”

Referring to his repeated failed attempts in later life to persuade Mr Rogers to take a DNA test, she added: “He didn’t necessarily want Mr Rogers to behave like his dad. He just wanted to know the truth.”

In 2018, he again wrote to Mr Rogers enclosing a DNA kit but received a reply from lawyers saying the aristocrat had passed away and so a test should be conducted.

And so, he inherited a 50-room house which was given to the National Trust by the Rogers in 1974 in exchange for a 1,000 year-lease to keep it in the family.

Mr Rogers had inherited the estate in 2012 after his father, Royal Navy veteran Lt Cdr John Peverell Rogers, died.

Mr Adlard Rogers, who lives at Penrose House with his girlfriend, Katie Hubber, and their baby, posted pictures on Facebook of himself “patrolling” Loe Pool, Cornwall’s largest natural lake that dominates the grounds. He has said proof of who his father was represented “closure”, adding that he would not forget his roots and planned to set up a local charity.

He took a few minutes to navigate the corridors where gilt-framed portraits of his ancestors hang before opening the creaking front door.

Speaking with a slight Cornish burr and holding his baby, he politely declined to comment, but added: “To be honest, I think it has all been blown out of proportion.”

Back at his grandmother’s home, Mrs Binns, who regularly stays at Penrose House, believes little will change with her loyal grandson.

“Jordan often comes here for dinner. He loves his nan,” she says. “He always says he wants me and Dusty [his step-grandfather] to move in.

“I don’t want to live on a National Trust estate. It’s Jordan’s home now and I’m happy for him.”