The posh owner of a stately home has BANNED a women’s group from visiting his Tudor countryside manor – branding them “blue-rinse battle-axes.”
William Cash, 47, accused members of Worcester Townswomen’s Guild of subjecting him to a “barrage of abuse” when they turned up for a day trip to Upton Cressett Hall which he owns.
He claims the 27-strong group turned up unannounced and demanded a tour before one elderly woman accidentally locked them out of the house when she used the toilet.
After a furious row with the group’s organisers, Mr Cash frogmarched them off the premises and banned them from ever returning.
Mr Cash, who owns the manor near Bridgnorth, Shrops., blasted the group after the row broke out on August 7 – and accused them of “baying for teas, tours and toilets.”
Mr Cash wrote on his blog after the incident: “I didn’t get any gratitude, or any thanks. I spent two hours of my time trying to give them a nice day.
“The women stepped over the line, no money did even pass hands – although plenty of free cake and tea were consumed, and the group of 27 showed up without so much as an advance booking or deposit.
“This group came in baying for teas, tours and toilets. I bent over backwards for two hours trying to please them.
“I wanted to be civil; and I was abused. They treated me as if I was a lavatory attendant at Waterloo.
“Reflecting on the incident, one clings to the hope that in our consumer obsessed culture, handing over a fiver or so for admission to a house doesn’t give ‘guests’ a license to be wilfully rude to the owner.”
He added that the women were nothing more than the “blue-rinse members of the jam-making and Order of the Battle-Axe variety.”
He wrote: “After giving the 27 members their marching orders, I then personally escorted the tour group (mostly white haired pensioners in summer suits or sixty plus blue-rinse members of the jam-making and Order of the Battle-Axe variety) towards the car park.
“But what the hell, I thought, as I saw the group of day trippers standing around the freshly mown Gatehouse Lawn, boasting smart stripes, in front of the main house.
“They were all happily chattering away like a full summer cast outing from the Tottering-By-Gently column in Country Life, with their smart eighties-style summer dresses, battered panamas, tropical jackets, blazers and high heels.”
But the Townswomen’s Guild has fought back, calling Mr Cash “insensitive” and “repugnant” and called on all groups to boycott his stately home.
Margaret Key, national Tradeswoman’s Guild chairwoman, said: “My reaction was absolute disbelief that Mr Cash could be so pompous as to label all ‘bossy, middle–aged, middle–class women’, in such terms.
“I have spoken with a Townswomen member who was in the visiting party.
“I gather many of the problems were brought on by his own incompetence and mismanagement, and that Mr Cash insulted the members of the group throughout the tour.
“He was eventually challenged, at which point he did, by his own admission, ‘bellow’ at them.’
“I would say to Mr Cash that we are all individuals and to generate such animosity by making broad sweeping statements about the female gender in particular, on personality, looks or age, is very unfortunate and will not win him any friends, or extra visitors to the house.”
