New Year Anguish Is Looming for Elderly Tenant Facing Eviction from ‘Ghosts’ Estate

Published on: 21 Dec, 2025
Updated on: 21 Jan, 2026

Baschea Walsh: “I have lived a very peaceful life here. It has been a privilege.” (Picture credit: The Sun).

By Isabelle Trubshaw

A 71-year-old woman is preparing to spend a final Christmas in the home she has lived in for 20 years as she faces eviction by the West Horsley Place Trust.

The Trust plans to convert her cottage into a holiday-let “to generate sustainable income” for the estate, which is where the BBC sitcom Ghosts was filmed.

Ilona Harris

Baschea Walsh was first contacted in July 2025 by the director of the Trust, Ilona Harris, to discuss “tenancy issues”. She was told she would have four months to vacate the cottage and could not remain over Christmas due to renovation works scheduled for November.

However, as of December 20, Ms Walsh still resides in the cottage, hoping to postpone her eviction until the New Year.

The pensioner said she felt suicidal when the eviction was first announced. She describes the plan as a “vanity project” aimed – at least in part – at attracting fans of Ghosts, which was filmed at the nearby Grade I-listed manor house.

“My whole life is in my home of 20 years,” she said. “West Horsley Place has been my life. It is not about me. It is about the injustice.”

The West Horsley Place Trust was established in 2015 after Bamber Gascgoine, the former host of TV’s University Challenge, inherited the estate and transferred it over to the charity for restoration purposes.

Ms Walsh moved into the estate in 2006. Gascgoine reportedly told her that she could stay in the cottage “forever” and Ms Walsh didn’t feel it was necessary to have it in writing.

Over the years, the pensioner said she had given her life to the estate in various ways.

“I have lived a very peaceful life here and it has been a privilege,” she said. “I fell in love with it the first time I came here. I knew this was the place I wanted to be. I had dreamt about it.

“I treat visitors to the estate like visitors to my own home because it has been my home.”

A Ghosts fan described her as “an asset to the site, acting as an unpaid and unofficial volunteer, tour guide, local historian, litter picker, caretaker, gardener, security guard, ambassador, host, tea maker, chef…”

The house at the centre of the dispute

A spokesperson for the Trust said: “We fully appreciate how significant an upheaval this is for the tenant. We have not taken the decision to end this tenancy lightly.

“We have provided an extended notice period and offered personalised support, including assistance in exploring alternative housing options.”

Ms Walsh disputes this. She claims that this package amounted to being given the contact details of three local estate agencies: Albury Estate, the Loseley Estate and Wills & Smerdon.

Ms Walsh says the experience has left her devastated and she has been referred to a mental health unit.

The Trust remains faithful to its decision, stating: “To secure the long-term future of the estate, we are introducing new ways for people to experience West Horsley Place including the careful conversion of two cottages into short-stay accommodation. Income from these stays will directly support our cultural, educational, and conservation programmes.”

A Ghosts fan started a petition to stop the eviction, which received more than 2,200 signatures, before being taken down and followed by an apology to the Trust for having “acting without all of the facts”.

A new petition was uploaded to the internet on October 28.

Some experts and supporters have questioned the financial reasoning behind the eviction.

Keith Weed, chair of the Royal Horticultural Society, said that holiday-lets are “a load of trouble”, and “do not make much money”, citing testimony of other estates, such as Polesden Lacey.

Cathy-Mungall Baldwin, Behaviour Science expert at the University of Glasgow, also questioned the Trust’s financial motives in a letter to the Trust, writing: “Short-term lets are not sustainable by definition, as short-term visitors are travelling usually by car to country locations and using more fuel than on average for short-local journeys. You are bringing more people with polluting behaviours into your estate than before.”

Ms Walsh believes the Trust has not undertaken any assessment that would back up this financial assertion.

“There has been no site of costings, business plans, impact statement – we have asked, but got no response,” she said.

In a letter to the trust, one volunteer wrote: “You do not show your workings, so it is impossible to accept that even on the single issue of financial advantage, your positive statement regarding increased income is likely to be true”.

During the initial stages of her eviction, Ms Walsh said she suggested a viable alternative to the Trust’s plans by offering up her front door and large entrance room, which would allow for the conversion of the neighbouring cottage – a five-bed – into two holiday-let cottages – a three-bed and a two-bed. She said the offer was declined.

Since the eviction was announced, the Trust has blocked off Ms Walsh’s garage for asbestos concerns, despite its contents being in there for almost two decades.

She said: “The garage contains all the materials that I use to make the poppies, which I annually donates to local charities including, Victory V, The Normandy memorial at Gold beach and Memorial woodland.

“I can’t do it this year. The knock-on effect of what they’re doing to me is huge. I am giving something back. They wouldn’t know charity if it came and hit them on the head”