Christmas Day, with its messages of good cheer, will be difficult enough, but the worst moment will be moving out, when she is forced to say farewell to the home she dreamed of living in as a child — a house described as the most beautiful in Britain. For a dozen years, former Marks & Spencer heiress Rebecca Howard has revelled in being described as 'a chatelaine for the 21st century'. The phrase implied an unassailable position as the mistress of Castle Howard, the sprawling Yorkshire estate now 300 years old that was the setting for the epic ITV television drama series Brideshead Revisited, starring Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. But, after little over a decade in that envied role, she is about to spend her final Christmas amid its surprisingly intimate grandeur. It will be, according to one of the family, 'Christmas as usual'. But there will be precious little cheer. Scroll down for video . Rebecca and Simon Howard, pictured at Castle Howard,  are about to spend their final Christmas amid its grandeur . For soon after January 1, she and her husband Simon Howard, 58, who has lived there all his life, and their 12-year-old twins Merlin and Octavia, will have to leave the 18th-century mansion designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, a house that comes with temples, follies, peacocks, 100 staff and 10,000 rolling acres — as well as 250,000 paying visitors a year. To where, no one is quite sure at this moment. 'Wherever it is, Rebecca will feel she's living in the garden shed,' says a friend. It has all been rather sudden. Into their place will sweep Simon's elder brother Nicholas, 62, a photographer, and Castle Howard's new chatelaine, his tough and very business-savvy wife Victoria Barnsley, former £500,000-a-year chief executive of publishing giant HarperCollins. In a move that has divided the wider family, Nick and Vicky are taking over. Why? One clue lies in an anodyne statement from Castle Howard explaining that Nick is preparing 'the next generation of the Howard family to take on the running of the estate'. Nick's son George, 29, whose grandfather was the late comedian Derek Nimmo,  is already a director of the company that runs the estate. 'Some will cruelly say it is poetic justice that Rebecca, great niece of Lord Sieff, former chairman of Marks & Spencer, is having to leave the home of her dreams. For when she married Simon (in the great house, wearing the family's Cartier tiara and attended by a company of liveried footmen and trumpeters) in 2001, she was the object of angry family gossip'. They will be replaced by Simon's older brother Nicholas Howard and his business-savvy  wife Victoria Barnsley . It is certainly true that when she began her affair with Simon Howard he was still married to his first wife Annette — six years his senior and affectionately known to friends as Scruff — though the marriage had been in difficulties for some time. What didn't help was an unflattering profile of Rebecca in Vanity Fair, written by her friend Plum Sykes, which had the headline 'The woman who set out to marry a house'. Under that astonishing headline was Rebecca's own admission that she fell in love with Castle Howard when she was 14 while watching the Brideshead TV series. 'It looked so glamorous and so wonderful and you thought, I'm not going to end up in a s****y little house somewhere . . . I want to live there,' she told Plum. When the Vanity Fair article appeared in June 2002, seven months after she'd become mistress of Castle Howard, she was upset that it portrayed her as a calculating house-huntress. 'I fell madly in love with Simon,' she insisted. But her obsession with Castle Howard was real enough. At 20, as a young heiress and socialite, a glossy magazine asked her where she wanted to live and her instant reply was: 'Oh, somewhere like Castle Howard.' She had to wait until she was 34 to achieve her ambition. Now, 12 years later and aged 46, the dream is over. Rebecca admitted she fell in love with Castle Howard when she was 14 while watching the Brideshead TV series but insisted she also fell 'madly in love' with Simon . But then, this is one of the hazards of spending one's entire trust fund while still in your 20s, as she did, after which the one-time heiress had to work for a living, doing research for royal biographer Hugo Vickers as well as — ironically enough — organising tours of stately homes. Some feel that the timing is cruel, as Simon Howard has been battling throat cancer, from which he now believes he is free. Others think that this handover of power was put on hold until his cancer crisis was over. The fact is that the house could — indeed should — have been Nick's in the first place, but he didn't want it. An older brother, Henry, had a medical condition that required constant attention and was clearly unable to take it on — he died six years ago. Nick was next in line, but at the age of 16 he told his father, Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, former chairman of the BBC, that he wanted to be a rock star. And so, while Nick set out to make it big in music, younger brother Simon was dispatched to the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester to be ready to take over the estate when the time came. And in 1984, when their father died, take over he did. Meanwhile, despite years of trying, success as a singer and songwriter never materialised for Nick. The closest he got to a rock star's lifestyle was being raided by the drugs squad when he was 21 for possessing what he has described as 'a footling amount of cannabis' with four other members of his group Peaches. It was 1973 and the band was living on social security — and rent-free — in a farmhouse on the estate. Nick was fined £100, and a family story that is repeated to much amusement to this day is how he asked if he could pay it off in three months, only to be told by the chairman of the magistrates: 'This is meant to be a punishment, not hire purchase.' Eventually, he gave up trying to be a rock star and turned to photography, at which he rapidly came to be highly regarded, especially for his portraits and landscapes. He has had two successful exhibitions. The move to turf out Simon, Rebecca and their children is said to have divided the wider family . No doubt those struggling early days living on the estate will provide much nostalgic laughter after he and Vicky move into Castle Howard in the New Year. The couple have been married 22 years and she is his second wife. His first wife, Amanda, with whom he had George, was Derek Nimmo's daughter. She is now married to another photographer, Willie Christie. 'There's always been an edgy relationship between Nick and his brother Simon,' says a family source, 'and their wives have never really got on. I daren't think what Rebecca's view of being replaced by Vicky is. They're very different women who talk about different things. One has always been incredibly pretty [Rebecca], the other has always been incredibly successful [Vicky]. 'I know that when Nick and Vicky used Castle Howard for a big party a couple of years ago — it was a combined 60th birthday for Nick, their 20th wedding anniversary and their daughter Blanche's 18th birthday — Vicky was saying what a wonderful house it was . . . perhaps meaningfully. 'Anyone would love it — it's far more intimate than you think from the outside, with a separate flat in each of the wings. Gorgeous.' While Vicky is known to be 'excited' at testing herself against the demands of running a great house, Rebecca and Simon are 'inconsolable'. To fully appreciate their shock at having to get out, it is worth hearing the description of Castle Howard by Horace Walpole, the great art historian son of 18th-century Prime Minister Sir Robert. He wrote of the Palladian mansion that 'it was possible to see at one view a palace, a town, a fortified city, temples in high places, woods . . . the noblest lawn in the world fenced by half the horizon.' Simon, an irascible figure, has not only lost the house but also his position as chairman of the board, which he has held for many years. Intriguingly, the directorshave replaced him with not one but two co-chairmen — Nick and his wife Vicky. But it is Vicky who will effectively be running the show as she is the new 'executive' co-chairman while her husband is 'non-executive'. Simon, in charge since 1983, steps down to become, like his nephew George, a director, and will continue to help out. 'Putting Vicky in this lofty position is a final dagger thrust in Rebecca's heart as they certainly didn't make her a director, even though she worked as hard as anyone with Simon to make sure the house remained beautiful and a success with the public,' says a close friend. 'She's wounded and angry. This is a sudden life change she never saw coming. It isn't as if Nick and Vicky haven't anywhere else to live — they've got two fine houses already, one near Bath, the other in Bayswater.' For 12 years, Rebecca has woken up to a breathtaking view across the lake. She will see it on Christmas morning, knowing that one day very soon, she will see it for the last time. After all she has been through, it seems she is bound for a 'sh***y little house' after all.
Heiress Rebecca Howard has been mistress of Castle Howard for 12 years .
But in a move that split wider family she and her family will have to leave .
In their place will be her husband's elder brother Nicholas and his wife .
Rebecca fell in love with Castle Howard at 14 watching Brideshead series .
Yorkshire estate boasts temples, peacocks, 100 servants and 10,000 acres .
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the estate was owned as a trust. In fact, it is run by a private limited company. Mr and Mrs Simon Howard inform us that they have made no decision to stop living at Castle Howard. Their twins are aged 12 not 14. The heirs to the estate remain the four children of Simon and Nicholas Howard. We suggested that Prince Charles was patron of the ‘trust’ of the estate when he is in fact patron of the Arboretum Trust.
Christmas Day, with its messages of good cheer, will be difficult enough, but the worst moment will be moving out, when she is forced to say farewell to the home she dreamed of living in as a child — a house described as the most beautiful in Britain. For a dozen years, former Marks & Spencer heiress Rebecca Howard has revelled in being described as 'a chatelaine for the 21st century'. The phrase implied an unassailable position as the mistress of Castle Howard, the sprawling Yorkshire estate now 300 years old that was the setting for the epic ITV television drama series Brideshead Revisited, starring Anthony Andrews and Jeremy Irons. But, after little over a decade in that envied role, she is about to spend her final Christmas amid its surprisingly intimate grandeur. It will be, according to one of the family, 'Christmas as usual'. But there will be precious little cheer. Scroll down for video . Rebecca and Simon Howard, pictured at Castle Howard,  are about to spend their final Christmas amid its grandeur . For soon after January 1, she and her husband Simon Howard, 58, who has lived there all his life, and their 12-year-old twins Merlin and Octavia, will have to leave the 18th-century mansion designed by Sir John Vanbrugh, a house that comes with temples, follies, peacocks, 100 staff and 10,000 rolling acres — as well as 250,000 paying visitors a year. To where, no one is quite sure at this moment. 'Wherever it is, Rebecca will feel she's living in the garden shed,' says a friend. It has all been rather sudden. Into their place will sweep Simon's elder brother Nicholas, 62, a photographer, and Castle Howard's new chatelaine, his tough and very business-savvy wife Victoria Barnsley, former £500,000-a-year chief executive of publishing giant HarperCollins. In a move that has divided the wider family, Nick and Vicky are taking over. Why? One clue lies in an anodyne statement from Castle Howard explaining that Nick is preparing 'the next generation of the Howard family to take on the running of the estate'. Nick's son George, 29, whose grandfather was the late comedian Derek Nimmo,  is already a director of the company that runs the estate. 'Some will cruelly say it is poetic justice that Rebecca, great niece of Lord Sieff, former chairman of Marks & Spencer, is having to leave the home of her dreams. For when she married Simon (in the great house, wearing the family's Cartier tiara and attended by a company of liveried footmen and trumpeters) in 2001, she was the object of angry family gossip'. They will be replaced by Simon's older brother Nicholas Howard and his business-savvy  wife Victoria Barnsley . It is certainly true that when she began her affair with Simon Howard he was still married to his first wife Annette — six years his senior and affectionately known to friends as Scruff — though the marriage had been in difficulties for some time. What didn't help was an unflattering profile of Rebecca in Vanity Fair, written by her friend Plum Sykes, which had the headline 'The woman who set out to marry a house'. Under that astonishing headline was Rebecca's own admission that she fell in love with Castle Howard when she was 14 while watching the Brideshead TV series. 'It looked so glamorous and so wonderful and you thought, I'm not going to end up in a s****y little house somewhere . . . I want to live there,' she told Plum. When the Vanity Fair article appeared in June 2002, seven months after she'd become mistress of Castle Howard, she was upset that it portrayed her as a calculating house-huntress. 'I fell madly in love with Simon,' she insisted. But her obsession with Castle Howard was real enough. At 20, as a young heiress and socialite, a glossy magazine asked her where she wanted to live and her instant reply was: 'Oh, somewhere like Castle Howard.' She had to wait until she was 34 to achieve her ambition. Now, 12 years later and aged 46, the dream is over. Rebecca admitted she fell in love with Castle Howard when she was 14 while watching the Brideshead TV series but insisted she also fell 'madly in love' with Simon . But then, this is one of the hazards of spending one's entire trust fund while still in your 20s, as she did, after which the one-time heiress had to work for a living, doing research for royal biographer Hugo Vickers as well as — ironically enough — organising tours of stately homes. Some feel that the timing is cruel, as Simon Howard has been battling throat cancer, from which he now believes he is free. Others think that this handover of power was put on hold until his cancer crisis was over. The fact is that the house could — indeed should — have been Nick's in the first place, but he didn't want it. An older brother, Henry, had a medical condition that required constant attention and was clearly unable to take it on — he died six years ago. Nick was next in line, but at the age of 16 he told his father, Lord Howard of Henderskelfe, former chairman of the BBC, that he wanted to be a rock star. And so, while Nick set out to make it big in music, younger brother Simon was dispatched to the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester to be ready to take over the estate when the time came. And in 1984, when their father died, take over he did. Meanwhile, despite years of trying, success as a singer and songwriter never materialised for Nick. The closest he got to a rock star's lifestyle was being raided by the drugs squad when he was 21 for possessing what he has described as 'a footling amount of cannabis' with four other members of his group Peaches. It was 1973 and the band was living on social security — and rent-free — in a farmhouse on the estate. Nick was fined £100, and a family story that is repeated to much amusement to this day is how he asked if he could pay it off in three months, only to be told by the chairman of the magistrates: 'This is meant to be a punishment, not hire purchase.' Eventually, he gave up trying to be a rock star and turned to photography, at which he rapidly came to be highly regarded, especially for his portraits and landscapes. He has had two successful exhibitions. The move to turf out Simon, Rebecca and their children is said to have divided the wider family . No doubt those struggling early days living on the estate will provide much nostalgic laughter after he and Vicky move into Castle Howard in the New Year. The couple have been married 22 years and she is his second wife. His first wife, Amanda, with whom he had George, was Derek Nimmo's daughter. She is now married to another photographer, Willie Christie. 'There's always been an edgy relationship between Nick and his brother Simon,' says a family source, 'and their wives have never really got on. I daren't think what Rebecca's view of being replaced by Vicky is. They're very different women who talk about different things. One has always been incredibly pretty [Rebecca], the other has always been incredibly successful [Vicky]. 'I know that when Nick and Vicky used Castle Howard for a big party a couple of years ago — it was a combined 60th birthday for Nick, their 20th wedding anniversary and their daughter Blanche's 18th birthday — Vicky was saying what a wonderful house it was . . . perhaps meaningfully. 'Anyone would love it — it's far more intimate than you think from the outside, with a separate flat in each of the wings. Gorgeous.' While Vicky is known to be 'excited' at testing herself against the demands of running a great house, Rebecca and Simon are 'inconsolable'. To fully appreciate their shock at having to get out, it is worth hearing the description of Castle Howard by Horace Walpole, the great art historian son of 18th-century Prime Minister Sir Robert. He wrote of the Palladian mansion that 'it was possible to see at one view a palace, a town, a fortified city, temples in high places, woods . . . the noblest lawn in the world fenced by half the horizon.' Simon, an irascible figure, has not only lost the house but also his position as chairman of the board, which he has held for many years. Intriguingly, the directorshave replaced him with not one but two co-chairmen — Nick and his wife Vicky. But it is Vicky who will effectively be running the show as she is the new 'executive' co-chairman while her husband is 'non-executive'. Simon, in charge since 1983, steps down to become, like his nephew George, a director, and will continue to help out. 'Putting Vicky in this lofty position is a final dagger thrust in Rebecca's heart as they certainly didn't make her a director, even though she worked as hard as anyone with Simon to make sure the house remained beautiful and a success with the public,' says a close friend. 'She's wounded and angry. This is a sudden life change she never saw coming. It isn't as if Nick and Vicky haven't anywhere else to live — they've got two fine houses already, one near Bath, the other in Bayswater.' For 12 years, Rebecca has woken up to a breathtaking view across the lake. She will see it on Christmas morning, knowing that one day very soon, she will see it for the last time. After all she has been through, it seems she is bound for a 'sh***y little house' after all.
farewell to the home she dreamed of living in as Spencer heiress Rebecca Howard has revelled in position as the mistress of Castle Howard, the January 1, she and her husband Simon Howard, 58, 12-year-old twins Merlin and Octavia, will have follies, peacocks, 100 staff and 10,000 rolling all been rather sudden. Into their place will of publishing giant HarperCollins. In a move that has divided the wider family, Nick and Vicky are of the company that runs the estate. 'Some will Marks & Spencer, is having to leave the home of family gossip'. They will be replaced by Simon's older brother Nicholas Howard and his that she fell in love with Castle Howard when she was 14 while watching the Brideshead TV series. ambition. Now, 12 years later and aged 46, the cancer crisis was over. The fact is that the for possessing what he has described as 'a co-chairmen — Nick and his wife Vicky. But it is