THE Earl of Cardigan is hopeful a High Court ruling to remove one of the Savernake Estate trustees could help to secure its future.

In Friday’s ruling Mr Justice Newey concluded that trustees John Moore, a barristers' clerk, and Wilson Cotton, a private tax service partner, had failed to “achieve the repair and re-letting” of a house on the estate and failed to take steps to obtain possession of another estate property.

As a result, the estate lost more than £60,000. The judge said the trustees should pay it to the trust in compensation. He said Mr Moore, who had been paid more than £100,000 in the last six years, was not entitled to charge for his services.

He refused to authorise the payments and said Mr Moore should repay the money. He said Mr Cotton should stay as a trustee but ruled Mr Moore should be removed once Tottenham House has been sold.

Last month Lord Cardigan, 61, who lives in Savernake Lodge on the estate with his wife Joanna and one-year-old daughter Sophie, failed to block the sale of the £11.5 million sale of his ancestral home.

He said: “We fought tooth and nail to avoid the sale of Tottenham House and sadly we weren’t successful, so the sale of Tottenham House, it is anticipated, will complete later this month.

“The dust of the battle is very much settling but I very much hope that this means I have saved Savernake Estate and Savernake Forest from being broken up and sold because both trustees told the court that once they sold Tottenham House they would then press on to split up or sell the 1,000-year-old estate, not just the forest but all the farms, cottages, houses, the entire shebang, which has never once been bought or sold since 1066.

“With this removal of one of the trustees and his replacement by an independent professional, I very much hope that I have saved the estate from that grisly fate.”

Lord Cardigan is one of the main beneficiaries of the trust, holding 49 per cent, with his son, Viscount Savernake, holding the other 51 per cent.

He said: “Anyone visiting the estate now will find it in quite a sad state. If there is any consolation to me in the heartbreaking sale of Tottenham House it is that there is now going to be a pile of money to plant more trees, repair rotten fences and try and make good some of the horrors that have happened in the last five years.

“Order has also got to be created back at my house with that money.

"I’ve had no hot water since 2011, there’s been no heating in that house for three-and-a-half years. Rain water is pouring into my bedroom and the ceiling of the adjacent bedroom has totally collapsed.”

His legal team is considering appeal options against the decision to keep Mr Cotton as a trustee.