Jeremy Corbyn had 'country bumpkin' childhood in Shropshire manor
He is the firebrand left-winger who has styled himself as the champion of the poor and underprivileged, but Jeremy Corbyn is to the manor born.
The man tipped to be next Labour leader grew up in this seven-bedroomed mansion near Newport, which once belonged to the Duke of Sutherland.
On Saturday the Shropshire Star revealed how Mr Corbyn said many of his views were shaped during his time growing up in the county, particularly his time at Adams Grammar School where he was, by his own admission, "not a very good student".
And the MP's brother Piers, now a leading meteorologist, has revealed how he and his brothers lived a "country bumpkin lifestyle" at Yew Tree Manor in Pave Lane, just south of Newport.
Mr Corbyn, who was born in Chippenham, Wiltshire, was seven years old when the family moved to Shropshire due to his father's work.
The mansion was being used as a hotel when David Corbyn, a talented electrical engineer, first stayed there.
But David was so taken with the house that he decided to buy it, and converted it into a family home for him, his wife Naomi — the daughter of a wealthy surveyor – and their four sons.
Piers said: "My mother's family were very well off."
Naomi and David met during the 1930s at a meeting in London for supporters of the Spanish republicans, who were fighting to overthrow Francisco Franco's far-right military regime.
Piers, who is two years older than Jeremy, has fond memories of their time at Yew Tree Manor.
"It had been a manor house on the Duke of Sutherland's estate," says Piers, now 68.
"It was far too big, but we had a whale of a time. Jeremy was a country bumpkin like me. When I first came to London in the 60s, I didn't understand how lifts worked, I would have thought Jeremy would have had similar problems."
