A “POWER STRUGGLE” between an angry mother and her disinherited son has torn apart a Wiltshire farming dynasty and run up a staggering £2.5million in lawyers’ bills.

Retired girls’ school mistress Pamela Moore, 75, has never got on with her son, Stephen, believing him to be more interested in “fast cars” than farming.

Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal have now ruled that a “clean break” between them is the only chance they have of a happier future.

The pensioner had been left living on just £200 a week, cheek by jowl with Stephen on the family’s 650-acre farm in Stapleford, worth £10million.

But, coming to her aid, Lord Justice Henderson said she should get a lump sum of £1 to £2million so she can finally cut her ties with her son.

The law, the judge said, “cannot compel people who have fallen out to live peaceably together” and a final separation was the only option.

Relations between mother and son hit breaking point in 2008 when Stephen acquired a half share of the family land from his uncle.

After he splashed out on a sports car, his mum accused him of “becoming very full of himself” and using family money “as a piggy bank.”

In 2012, after dedicating his life to working the farm near Stapleford, Stephen learned that Pamela and his dad, Roger Moore, had written him out of their wills. They instead decided to leave their £5million share of the family’s holdings to his older sister, Julie.

Stephen, 51, challenged the move in court, saying his dad - who is now in a care home with advanced dementia - repeatedly “promised” him the whole farm. That included the “substantial” Grade 2 listed Manor Farmhouse, where his mother still lives, and several other houses on the estate.

In 2016, Judge Simon Monty ruled that Roger’s promises trumped his will and Stephen was entitled to “the whole lot.”

Pamela was allowed to stay on in the farmhouse, and Stephen was told to pay for any care his parents’ needed - but his mother was given just £200 a week to live on.

She appealed the decision on behalf of Roger, and Lord Justice Henderson this week agreed she should get between £1 and £2million.

Lamenting that “in the region of £2.5 million” had so far been spent on lawyers’ bills, the judge said Judge Monty’s decision left Pamela “locked into a continuing financial relationship with her estranged son Stephen.”

“On any view, this was in my judgment far too high and disproportionate a price to pay for achieving the objective of enabling the farm in its entirety to remain in a single pair of male Moore hands for a fourth generation,” said Lord Justice Henderson.

It was nowhere near enough to reflect Pamela’s role as a mother and her “long and happy marriage” of over 50 years to Stephen’s father, added the judge.

The cash to be paid to Pamela will enable her to move to a new home and give her an independent income.