Pat down the golden retrievers: Cotswolds put on high alert for Vance family visit

Thames Valley police are making door to door calls along the sleepy residential stretch in the hamlet of Dean, where the former prime minister David Cameron and his family have their house. “We’re used to seeing police around, because of Cameron, but nothing like this,” said Sarah, a retired travel agent. “It makes it hard to get about.”

The narrow lanes in this corner of Oxfordshire, lined by tall, dry grass, are being patrolled by uniformed and non-uniformed officers due to the arrival of the man who is, arguably, the second most powerful in the world: JD Vance.

The US vice-president is staying in an 18th-century manor house, owned by friends of the Camerons, the lightbulb millionaire Johnny Hornby (not to be confused with the advertising executive of the same name, also with a Cotswold pile) and his wife Pippa, a London art patron and collector.

On Friday the rustic-style wooden gates leading into the 2.4 hectacre property’s gravel driveway were open for a fleet of big black cars, with dark windows. Outside the garage a golf cart awaited; useful kit for ad hoc diplomacy. To the right, a path leads down to an orchard, equipped with a dovecot and a wooden bench; ideal for a moment of strategic contemplation.

“We have had the police knocking on every door,” said a dog walker and resident of Dean, as a helicopter buzzed overhead. “They wanted the names of everybody living there and details of their social media. I know several people refused. We asked them if they were protecting us, or Vance. At least they were honest and said it is for him and that it will all be passed on to the American security people.”

The visit is unsettling locals, some of whom are troubled by a potential threat to their rose-clad, stone cottages. These are the sort of houses where even the wattle fencing has a designer tag. “It is not just a worry about whether there will be protests, it could even be a drone attack these days,” added the dog walker.

“It is a really weird atmosphere,” said a workman from Cotswold Plasterers. “I’ve done a lot of jobs here and never seen it like this.”

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said: “No officers were instructed to ask residents about their social media accounts or use, and we have received no complaints regarding this. To reduce local impact due to temporary road restrictions during the visit, we held brief courtesy conversations with residents to understand their access needs and facilitate safe movement. It was made clear that participation was entirely voluntary and that responses would not be shared outside the police force.”

A statement from Vance’s office said: “The vice-president’s office and Secret Service were unaware of any efforts by local police to collect residents’ social media information. We greatly appreciate the effort our law enforcement partners put in to keeping the vice-president safe.”

Vance arrived this weekend to spend time in the postcard-perfect landscape now so popular with Americans. Only last week his predecessor as veep, Kamala Harris, visited Charlbury’s award-winning pub, The Bull.

But Vance, unlike the unsuccessful Democrat candidate, will be plugged into a network of like-minded VIPs based in the area for part of the summer. Nearby lives not just Cameron, his neighbour for the stay, but also the Trump-curious media doyen, Piers Morgan, and the Libertarian farmer and TV personality Jeremy Clarkson, although he has recently been critical of Vance, calling him a “bearded godbotherer” and so may well be lying low. (Rumours also abounded in Charlbury watering holes that Richard Tice and his partner, journalist Isabel Oakeshott, might visit Vance in a break from their Dubai home.) Blur’s bassist, the Tory-friendly Alex James, is also an artisan cheese-roll away, although Vance is unlikely to be around long enough to drop into his Feastival event later this month.

It is also not far to the Sarsden home of News UK’s chief executive, Rebekah Brooks and her husband Charlie, established members of the influential “kitchen dinner” Chipping Norton circle. Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert’s semi-estranged daughter, is close by too, should either JD or Usha Vance want to buy an artwork from her husband, the Turner prize-winning Keith Tyson.

Outside Vance’s manor a middle-aged cyclist stoops to pick up windfall fruit – or is he CIA? More likely an undercover journalist. Locals are more wary of media pariahs than of the ear-piece-wearing US security details. In fact, they are pretty used to Americans of all sorts. The area is already nicknamed Little Hollywood. Taylor Swift wanted a property after visiting Soho Farmhouse in Great Tew, and Beyoncé is believed to be due in town soon.

In the pubs of Charlbury, a fairly standard, quaint English village, aside from all the film production offices, Americans have booked up all the rooms. But behind the bar the talk is of the ethics of serving a pint to a potential US demagog. Closer to Vance’s summer stay, the coffee shop and convenience store Cafe De La Poste is busier than it has been for weeks. The phone rings repeatedly, but London journalists get short shrift. “We’re not interested, thank you.” Business may be good, but the area has been ruined for locals by the high house prices that followed its influx of celebrities, from the Beckhams and Amanda Holden, to Ellen de Generes and Portia di Rossi, to Ben Kingsley and Kate Moss.

Local WhatsApp groups and village forums focus on sinister changes to street furniture. A new camera has gone up on a Charlbury lamppost, probably just for traffic speed enforcement. More suspiciously, a mobile phone mast is being erected in a field adjacent to Vance’s temporary home.

Such changes are a small price to pay compared to the Vance family’s recent impact on Caesar Creek Lake in Ohio. On holiday there, they reportedly raised the water level to have a better boat trip on Little Miami River. It is only to be hoped there is no repeat incident at Charlbury Canoe Club if the Vance children, Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel, set off from the banks of the Evenlode.

St Theresa’s, Charlbury’s small Catholic church, is primed for a visit from the devout Vance. Father Clive Dytor has prepared his congregation. “This is a big Lib Dem area, but I have told the congregation that whatever their politics, red, blue or pink, we have to be welcoming.”

Photographs by Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy, Michael Dibb, Ben Dance / FCDO

• This article was updated on 14 August 2025 to include statements from Thames Valley Police and the office of JD Vance about security arrangements for the visit.