Diana’s Hometown Bitter To Fruits Of Fame Great Brington Fights To Avoid Becoming ‘Another Graceland’

With hundreds of people bringing their flowers, their sympathy and their curiosity to the gates of the estate where the Princess of Wales was buried, the family and nearby villages are feeling the stress of unwanted fame.

The Spencer family asked Tuesday for an end to flowers. “It is turning into a problem, and it is getting worse,” a family spokeswoman said.

In nearby Great Brington, a village 75 miles northwest of London, there is pride and affection for Diana, but concern about a rush of outsiders.

“There will be no shrine while I am priest-in-charge here,” the Rev. David MacPherson said as he watched people stream through the doors of the 17th-century church of St. Mary the Virgin. His church is awash with flowers, cards, kids’ drawings and gifts including a well-used teddy bear.

“Life goes on with this community and we must continue to do our work,” MacPherson said.

Twenty local volunteers take turns escorting visitors through the small stone church, ensuring there is no crowding outside the ornate, gloomy Spencer family vault.

Before the family’s announcement Friday that Diana would be buried on a lake isle at Althorp, a mile away, she was expected to have been laid to rest in the vault among 20 generations of her ancestors.

“We are very pleased that the earl has placed Diana at Althorp,” said steward Linda Shaeffer, a Newark, N.J., native guiding visitors Tuesday. “We never could have coped.”

“Last week, we were absolutely beleaguered,” said Ann Bellamy, a 40-year resident of Great Brington. “But people have been well-behaved. The only trouble we had was when someone parked in our driveway.”

When pressed, she recalled that she often used to bump into teenage Diana buying ice cream at the village post office cum store. “She was just an ordinary teenager - all legs.”

Other locals are also clearly tired of the attention. “Politely - no press,” reads the notice outside the Fox and Hounds pub.

The church guidebook has sold out and staff have a long list of orders from Diana fans keen to get their hands on anything associated with the princess.

Dr. Stephen Mattingly, a retired consultant physician and amateur village historian, said although the Spencer family now only owns small pieces of Great Brington, it still must give permission for changes. Otherwise, he said, the village might “become another Graceland.”