The 33-year-old recently moved to Cheshire, where he will wed his long-term girlfriend today at Chester Cathedral, officially ending his title as ‘Britain’s most eligible bachelor’.
Grosvenor is also godfather to Prince George, and it’s reported that Prince William will serve as an usher today.
Wedding fever has gripped Chester in earnest ahead of what’s being described as ‘Britain’s poshest wedding’, and the happy couple have been getting involved in turning their big day into a city-wide celebration.
The Duke and Olivia have paid for everyone to have free ice cream from three local businesses all day long today, Friday 7 June.
The Duke, who inherited his title and a huge land and property portfolio at the age of just 25, also sponsored the Summer Flowers project this year.
It’s seen more than 100,000 flowers planted across the city and Chester is bursting with colour as a result.
It’s likely there’ll be no expense spared for the lavish celebration and it may be the most elaborate wedding the country will see for several years to come.
It’s had the entire city in an excited tizzy and Chester, already one of the most picturesque cities in the country, is looking better than ever for the big day.
Enormous floral arrangements now adorn the historic Chester Cathedral entrance, everything in town is sparkling, and local shops have created special displays in honour of the happy couple.
The Eastgate Clock on the City Walls was lit up in red white and blue last night ahead of what is, essentially, the north west’s royal wedding.
Chester BID shared yesterday: “As part of local celebrations for their wedding, The Duke of Westminster and Olivia Henson are delighted to support three fantastic independent businesses by subsidising free ice cream, gelato or sorbet for those who visit the city centre this Friday 7th June.
“@krumgelato will be opening at 10am and scoop on the day until stock lasts! Offering a single scoop of a range of gelato flavours as well as lemon sorbet (the theme of the couple’s wedding cake) using very special Italian lemons to be served exclusively on Friday.
“@cheshirefarm_icecream based in @newchestermarket is also offering a range of Cheshire Farm single-scoop ice-creams or slices of a new lemon-sponge flavoured arctic roll.
“AND Diddy Donuts underneath the Eastgate Clock is offering a single scoop of ice-cream, a small portion of their donuts or water, tea and coffee. Who wants ice cream?”
Featured image: Unsplash, Rachel Hannah
Cheshire
Same-sex penguin couple to raise rare baby chick together at Chester Zoo
Emily Sergeant
10 rare baby penguin chicks have hatched at Chester Zoo, and one of them has some rather unique parents.
The rare new arrivals are highly-threatened Humboldt penguins, which is one of the most at-risk out of the world’s 17 species of penguin, and began hatching from their eggs throughout April, but since then, they have spent their first few weeks of life tucked away in their nest burrows.
Humboldt penguins – which are ound on the rocky coastal shores of Peru and Chile – are listed as vulnerable to extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as they face a number of threats in the wild, including climate change, overfishing, and rising ocean temperatures.
Commonly with penguins, both mum and dad share feeding and parenting duties.
Keepers at Chester Zoo support the parents by providing plenty of extra fish, which the adult penguins swallow, blend into a protein-rich soup, and then regurgitate to feed the chicks.
But in what is a heartwarming development, one of the chicks is being raised by a same-sex penguin couple, Scampi and Flounder, as the devoted duo were seen to step in to help raise one of two eggs laid by another penguin pair, Wotsit and Peach.
The zoo’s bird experts carefully shared the eggs between the two nests to help give both chicks the best possible start and help improve chances of successful fledging, and now keepers say the chicks are just ‘days away’ from taking the plunge into their very first swimming lessons at the zoo’s Penguin Island habitat.
10 rare Humboldt penguins have hatched at Chester Zoo / Credit: Chester Zoo
As part of a long-standing zoo tradition, conservationists pick a different naming theme for the chicks each year, and this year’s cohort have been named after stars and celestial wonders – with some of the chicks being Ursa, Alcyone, Orion, Dorado, and Cassiopeia.
“10 chicks hatching in one season marks a bumper year for the penguins here,” commented Zoe Sweetman, who is the Team Manager of Penguins at Chester Zoo.
“It’s fantastic news for the species and a brilliant success for the international conservation breeding programme. The fluffy new arrivals are all being looked after brilliantly by their parents, having nearly quadrupled in size since they first emerged.
“They’re now days away from a really exciting milestone – their very first swimming lessons, which is always a thrill to witness as they dive into the pool for the very first time.”
Featured Image – Chester Zoo
Cheshire
‘Dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture goes on public display in Greater Manchester after fears it was lost
Emily Sergeant
A long-lost masterpiece of Victorian silverwork has been saved and is now on display to the public in Greater Manchester.
Anyone taking a trip over to the National Trust’s historic Dunham Massey property, on the border of Greater Manchester into Cheshire, this summer will get to see the ‘dazzling’ sculpture called Stags in Bradgate Park – which was commissioned by a former owner in a defiant gesture to the society that shunned him.
The dramatic sculpture of two rutting Red Deer stags, commissioned in 1855 by George Harry Grey, 7th Earl of Stamford, was said to be an ‘act of love and rebellion’.
It also serves as a symbol of ‘locking horns’ with the society that ostracised him over his marriage to a woman considered ‘beneath him’.
“This isn’t just silver – it’s a story,” says James Rothwell, who is the National Trust‘s curator for decorative arts.
“A story of a man who fell in love with a woman that society deemed unworthy. When the Earl married Catherine Cox, whose colourful past was said to have included performing in a circus, Victorian high society was scandalised. Even Queen Victoria shunned the couple at the opera and local gentry at the horse races in Cheshire turned their backs on them.”
Modelled by Alfred Brown and crafted by royal goldsmiths Hunt & Roskell, Stags in Bradgate Park is a meticulously-detailed depiction of nature, and was considered a ‘sensation’ in its day.
Showing the rutting deer positioned on a rocky outcrop with gnarled hollow oaks, it graced the pages of the Illustrated London News, was exhibited at the London International Exhibition of 1862, and at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 – both of which were events that drew millions of visitors.
A ‘dazzling’ Victorian silver sculpture has gone on public display in Greater Manchester / Credit: Joe Wainwright | James Dobson (via Supplied)
The silver centrepiece was the celebrity art of its time, paraded through streets and admired by the public like no other.
Gradually over the years, some of the Earl of Stamford’s silver collection has been re-acquired for Dunham Massey, and this particular world-renowned sculpture, thought to be lost for decades and feared to have been melted down, has miraculously survived with its ‘dramatic’ central component being all that is left.
“The sculpture is not only a technical marvel, with its lifelike depiction of Bradgate Park’s rugged landscape and wildlife, but also a dramatic human story key to the history of Dunham Massey,” added Emma Campagnaro, who is the Property Curator at Dunham Massey.
Daisy Jackson -
7th June 2024 
