JD Vance’s massive motorcade has been seen passing through Chipping Norton as he makes his way to a sleepy Cotswolds hamlet for a family holiday.

The US Vice President is visiting an 18th-century country estate in the village of Dean, where locals have expressed frustration over road closures, sniffer dogs, ID checks, and a heightened security presence.

All access points to the village, including two roads and three public footpaths, have been sealed off, with significant police and US Secret Service presence stationed within a large marquee.

Only residents of the hamlet are allowed in and out, dog walkers are diverted, and those entering are subject to car searches by security. 

Today, a local councillor described the intense security as ‘intimidating,’ likening the sight of guards in suits and sunglasses patrolling quiet streets to scenes from the film Men In Black.

“We understand the need for security, but I feel they haven’t been subtle about it,” said Councillor Andy Graham. “I think this has caused more concern than necessary. Roads have been closed up.”

Mr. Vance is in the Cotswolds today with his wife, Usha, and their children—Ewan, eight, Vivek, five, and Mirabel, three—after the family drove up from London following a private tour of Hampton Court yesterday.

Mr. Vance arrived at Henry VIII’s former residence in a 19-vehicle motorcade for a morning tour, compelling the site to postpone its public opening until 12pm.

He now appears to have finished his official business after making a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy.

Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other’s families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting.

JD Vance’s 29-vehicle motorcade passing through Chipping Norton this afternoon

Mr Vance has made his presence felt with a massive security cohort 

It comes after a brief trip on Friday to Chevening House, the official residence of British foreign secretary David Lammy. Pictured: Mr Lammy and Mr Vance show off their fishing skills at the Chevening country retreat 

The massive security operation surrounding Dean Manor has prompted its owner to apologise to neighbours for the disruption. 

Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home with her husband Johnny in 2017,  told villagers that she was ‘so sorry for the circus’ set to take place across the coming days, The Telegraph reported.

The manor house was built in 1702 for the MP Thomas Rowney and is close to Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat farm.

Set across six acres of land, the sprawling property is home to two cellars, a tennis court, rose garden, basement gym and Georgian orangery. 

One local previously told the Daily Mail: ‘There has been a lot of activity at the manor these last few days. It is hard to miss. Security absolutely everywhere. 

‘Men dressed identically surrounding the property with ear pieces and dark glasses.

‘Blacked out Mercedes vans shuttling people around every few minutes. We have never seen anything like it. It’s like something out of a film.

‘The word is that it is indeed for JD Vance. So we shall see.’

Police have closed off all roads and footpaths into the hamlet of Dean, where the US Vice President is staying with his family at Dean Manor, an 18th-century country house

Officers are now checking the identity of residents trying to pass through the security cordon, watched on by dozens of Secret Service agents

The vice presidential convoy making its way through Chipping Norton  

Pippa Hornby, who bought the 18th-century Cotswolds home (pictured) with her husband Johnny in 2017, has told villagers that she was ‘so sorry for the circus’ set to take place

The manor house was built in 1702 for Thomas Rowney, an Oxford MP

There has been intense activity around the manor house for days. 

On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping ‘in and out’ driveway, two suited security guards have been checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans.

One local said a large antennae placed behind the house, perhaps a telecoms tower, is ‘humming constantly’.

But another seemed almost entirely unaware of the upcoming visit at all. 

When asked about Mr Vance, he remarked: ‘Who? I’m unsure who that is.’

As the Daily Mail reported last month, the tiny village of Charlbury – which is near Dean – is home to The Bull, named Britain’s best pub in the National Pub of the Year at the National Pub and Bar Awards.

Earlier this year, Charlbury was named as one of the best places to live in Oxfordshire, alongside the towns of Henley and Burford.

Meanwhile, the wider Cotswolds have become the latest hot ticket with Americans seeking what they see as a traditional cosy English escape.

Mr Lammy, 53, and Mr Vance, 41, are understood to have forged an unlikely friendship and spent time with each other’s families, alongside engaging in a short, bilateral meeting. Pictured: Mr Vance and Mr Lammy in Rome in May this year

On the main gateway of the property, leading to a sweeping ‘in and out’ driveway, two suited security guards were checking the security clearance of those coming and going in a stream of blacked out cars and Mercedes limousine vans

There has been intense activity around the manor house for days 

Ellen DeGeneres, the US talk show host, is reportedly deliberately fleeing her home in the area ahead of Vance’s arrival after leaving the US following Trump’s election.

Fashion journalist Plum Sykes told BBC Radio 4 last month of the cosy English haven: ‘It’s just so hot and so trendy and so fashionable.

‘It’s an incredibly beautiful area because it’s being protected, almost like a national park that you can live in.

‘Americans cannot get over the charm but since Covid it’s been refashioned with all the pleasures of London, Paris and New York.

Despite their differences in political opinions, Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a ‘friend’ and someone who ‘completely relates’ to him. 

The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds – both being raised without their fathers – and their religion: Mr Lammy is an Anglican; Mr Vance a baptised Catholic since 2019.

Ahead of Mr Vance’s visit, which a source claimed would include a ‘short bilateral meeting’, the Foreign Office said ministerial engagements would be announced in ‘the usual way’.

In March, the Foreign Secretary and his wife Nicola Green visited the vice-president’s official residence in Washington, the Naval Observatory, for a private meeting without officials.

Chevening (pictured), a 400-year-old Grade I listed mansion, has been the de-facto summer residence of the Foreign Secretary for decades, after being gifted to the UK in 1959

Mr Lammy previously declared that he considers Mr Vance to be a ‘friend’ and someone who ‘completely relates’ to him. The pair are said to have bonded over their common backgrounds – both being raised without their fathers – and their religion

The Foreign Secretary told The Guardian earlier this month he and Mr Vance spent a ‘wonderful hour and a half’ together over drinks at the US Embassy in Italy during the inauguration of the new Pope, Leo XIV.

It comes shortly after  President Trump visited Scotland, spending time teeing off at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire in between holding diplomatic talks with the Prime Minister.

Announcing plans for a protest, the Stop Trump Coalition alliance said: ‘We are meeting Trump with protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh this month, and then in London and Windsor in September.

‘JD Vance is every bit as unwelcome in the UK as Donald Trump. We remember how Vance cut short his ski trip in Vermont because he was so enraged by the sight of a few protesters.

‘We are sure that, even in the Cotswolds, he will find the resistance waiting.’

Mr Vance has continued commenting on politics during his time in the UK, and said yesterday that the US was working to ‘schedule’ a meeting between Mr Trump and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts.

European leaders are frustrated at the decision to exclude President Zelensky from the upcoming US-Russia summit and fear it could lead to an agreement that is harmful to Ukrainian interests. 

‘One of the most important logjams is that Vladimir Putin said that he would never sit down with (Volodymyr) Zelensky, the head of Ukraine, and the president has now got that to change,’ Vance said during an interview on Fox News program ‘Sunday Morning Futures.’

‘We’re at a point now where we’re trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to this conflict,’ Vance said when asked about his expectations for the Alaska summit on August 15.

In the USA, the Cotswolds has been dubbed ‘the Hamptons of the UK’ due to its popularity with the celebrity set 

Pictured: A small protest in Chevening ahead of Mr Vance’s visit 

The vice president, in an interview conducted ahead of last week’s announcement that the US and Russian presidents would meet this Friday, said the US was going to ‘try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and Russians can live with.’

Vance added: ‘It’s not going to make anybody super happy, both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it.’

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker suggested on CNN that Zelensky could attend the summit.

He was asked whether Zelensky might join Trump and Putin on Friday.

‘Yes, I certainly think it’s possible,’ he said. ‘Certainly, there can’t be a deal that everybody that’s involved in it doesn’t agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it’s a high priority to get this war to end.’

In a flurry of diplomacy, Zelensky held calls with 13 counterparts over three days including Kyiv’s main backers Germany, Britain and France.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday he hoped and assumed that Zelensky would attend the summit.

Whitaker said the decision would ultimately be Trump’s to make.

‘If he thinks that that is the best scenario to invite Zelensky, then he will do that,’ he said, adding that ‘no decision has been made to this point.’