British armed counterterrorism officers debating who gets the chocolate-flavoured ice cream, Secret Service muttering in earpieces while wandering through meadows, and American security personnel emerging from a farm store with shopping bags.
None of these are sights that residents of a sleepy Cotswolds village are used to, with peaceful country lanes and rolling farmland their more usual daily landscape.
But this week, a US visitor in town, bringing warnings of a “circus” in tow.
After a busy few months in office, JD Vance is spending his summer holidays in a Grade II-listed country manor with his family in the hamlet of Dean, near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.
And the US vice president’s trip would not be complete without a visit to a farm shop dubbed the UK’s poshest.
Crowds descended on Daylesford Organic on Monday, as Mr Vance and his family decided to have a languorous lunch there, surrounded by products such as a £15 jar of hot chilli honey, a 12-pack of eggs for £6, and some bone broth at £7.50.
The first signs of the visit was the unusual appearance of a man in a dark suit, according to a member of the gym attached to the store. “This morning there were two guys walking the perimeter of the meadow in a black suit and tie,” they told The Times. “There are gardeners in the meadow sometimes but not a man in a suit and tie, I have never seen that before, so I knew it must be for the vice president. It’s not really very secret when they are dressed like that.”
Daylesford Organic continues to be run by its founder, Lady Bamford, who is married to billionaire JCB chairman and Conservative donor Lord Bamford. The couple have previously hosted politicians at their Georgian country estate at Daylesford House, with Boris and Carrie Johnson even holding their wedding party there in 2022.
The pair were seen leaving the farm shop’s private dining room at around 3pm, according to a staff member, while Mr Vance, his wife Usha, and their three children, Ewan, eight, Vivek, five, and Mirabel, three, all left just under an hour later.
A member of staff told the newspaper: “They came and had lunch as a family. It’s been exciting. Nice to have something different.”
The Vance family were given a tour of the complex, with the vice president and his wife seen laughing as they strolled through a conservatory.
Dean Manor, where the family are staying, is a 20-minute drive away in the vice president’s 20-vehicle motorcade, which was seen parked up outside Daylesford Organic from around 1pm.
Secret Service officers were spotted dressed in light-coloured chinos and plaid shirts, with kevlar vests hiding underneath, as they walked around the car park as well as inside the building.
British armed counterterrorism officers were also seen, with one walking out of the store holding three ice creams for his colleagues and asking: “Who wants chocolate?”
And members of the Metropolitan Police’s special escort group were seen too, dressed in bike leathers, and equipped with handguns and tasers. The team are normally in charge of protecting the Royal Family and government ministers.
Then multiple members of American security personnel were seen carrying Daylesford paper shopping bags as they left the store, before placing them in their armoured vehicles.
Around a hundred visitors also crowded round the entrance of Daylesford Organic, hoping to catch a glimpse of the vice president.
American tourists and Maga supporters, Arne and Holly Ewing, both 49, of New Jersey, told The Times: “We’d never get a chance to see him like that at home, you’d never get close. I posted on our family chat and my dad’s like, how did you get so close to him? I was like, we’re in England.”
Residents in the vicinity of Dean Manor’s 6-acre site have described roadblocks and police door knocks in recent days, as security in the area reaches high alert.
Road closures, sniffer dogs, police and a number of blacked out cars have all been spotted in the area, a marked difference to the usual calm and quaint atmosphere of a Cotswold country retreat.
Though the village is no stranger to high-profile faces, with it being the home to former prime minister David Cameron, the level of security has prompted the owners of the manor to apologise to locals “for the circus”.
Mr Vance is set to visit US troops at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on Wednesday. He will receive a briefing on the base’s capabilities and will deliver remarks.
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