Mother-of-one Dr Christine Gill, 58, has launched a legal challenge after her parents’ sprawling 287-acre farm estate bypassed her completely in their will.

In her witness statement, Dr Gill says: “The contrast between my parents’ behaviour towards me and the contents of their wills has been a devastating shock and a complete blow to my self-confidence.”

Dr Gill explained: “Not long after my father’s death my mother said that she thought they had both made wills leaving everything to each other but she did not know where they were.

“My mother made no mention of the RSPCA. I would have been astounded if she had. My mother had no time for the RSPCA whom she would describe as a ‘bunch of townies.’

Unknown to Dr Gill, the 1993 wills had left her parents’ estate to each other and then to the RSPCA if they both died. But she only found out after her mother died. Her father died in April 1999 aged 82.

The hearing at Leeds Crown Court has heard how Dr Gill, of Northallerton, believes her mother, who she said suffered from social phobia and agoraphobia, would have been coerced into signing the will by her father.

She says: “I know that it must have been my father who gave the instructions for these wills as I do not believe my mother would have ever wanted to make such a will and, anyway, she would never have contacted the solicitors herself.

Dr Gill also said she chose an academic career so she would help out on the farm and she also purchased an adjoining property, White House Farm, next to Potto Carr, with husband Andrew in 1986.

The hearing on Tuesday also saw Elspeth Talbot Rice QC, for the RSPCA, suggest Dr Gill was exaggerating her mother’s fears and that she had little trouble dealing with strangers.

Dr Gill said: “Back in the 70s she did deal with people but this was a gradual process in which she increasingly withdrew.”

The hearing continues