The North Yorkshire roots of Samantha Cameron, wife of Conservative leader, David Cameron

The Georgian stately pile, eight miles north of York, at Sutton-on-the-Forest, is home to Samantha’s father, Sir Reginald Sheffield, a descendant of Charles II.

The Camerons look forward to visiting Sutton Park, their bolthole in the north, where they can enjoy the seclusion and privacy denied them in the goldfish-bowl of London life.

Locals are not surprised the couple are rarely seen in the village during their visits, although Sir Reginald and Robert, Samantha’s brother, frequent The Rose & Crown, one of Sutton’s two pubs.

“They do come to Sutton from time to time, but they tend to keep themselves to themselves,” says Sue Bracewell, the village’s parish clerk. “I’ve got some friends who are tenants in the park and they rarely see them.”

But, she adds, you know the Camerons have arrived by the number of cars and extra security.

Sue is not surprised the Camerons don’t stray from the harbour of Sutton Park. “It must be great for them to get away from it all and the grounds at Sutton Park are so lovely,” she says.

The public can judge this for themselves when Sutton Park opens for the season at Easter.

Hidden behind imposing walls lie 1,000 acres and award-winning gardens as well as the house itself, a fine example of early Georgian architecture. Much of the collection inside comes from Buckingham House, the family’s London home built by John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham, now known worldwide as the Queen’s official residence – Buckingham Palace.

Opposite is All Hallows Church, where Tristram Shandy author Laurence Sterne was once vicar. The present incumbent, Chris Ellis, has yet to meet the Camerons, although the couple have attended services at York Minister.

One local, who asked not to be named, said villagers did not take it personally that the Camerons “kept themselves to themselves”. He said: “It’s their bolthole. Somewhere where they can cut themselves off and get away from it all.”

Few would begrudge the couple a chance to bow out of the limelight every now and then. Besides coping with their day jobs (Samantha is the creative director of upmarket stationers Smythson, of Bond Street, London), the couple have two young children – Nancy Gwen, six, and Arthur Elwen, four – with another baby due in September. Their son Ivan, who was born with cerebral palsy, died last February, aged six.

David may already be used to life in the limelight after five years leading the Conservative Party, but in the run-up to the election the spotlight is increasingly falling on Samantha, too.

Women voters are courted by political parties because the female vote can often determine who enters Number 10. With this year’s election looking likely to be the closest for a generation, the parties are pulling out the stops to woo female constituents.

As so the “battle” of the leaders’ wives has commenced. The better halves of Cameron, Clegg and Brown are stepping out of the shadows, and being scrutinised to within an inch of their hemlines, M&S ones of course.

Samantha was declared by her husband in a TV interview with Sir Trevor McDonald earlier this month as being the “secret weapon” in his election campaign. He also revealed how Samantha is his sounding-board when it comes to shaping policy ideas. He said: “Because she has her own job, she has this 40,000-foot view. She’ll say: ‘That’s the absolutely wrong thing to do; you’ll look an idiot.’… She is very common sense about life and unbelievably good at detecting any nonsense.”

The couple met when she was a 21-year-old art student in Bristol and he, five years her senior, was working as a political adviser to the then Chancellor, Norman Lamont.

In the same TV interview, Samantha told Sir Trevor how the couple met. “It was a holiday romance,” she said. “I thought he was incredibly funny, interesting and clever.” They were engaged two years later.

In their biography of the Tory leader, Cameron: The Rise Of The New Conservative, Francis Elliott and James Hanning reveal an intimate story about David’s first visit to Sutton Park.

They write: “His host was the formidable Nancie Sheffield, mother of Sir Reginald. Predictably, despite Nancie’s slightly intimidating air, Cameron impressed his girlfriend’s grandmother with his easy manner and intelligence.

“Nonetheless, he and Samantha had to sleep apart, at opposite ends of the vast house. To young lovers at the height of their passion, this presented a challenge, but one that Cameron was disinclined to shirk.

“After everyone had gone to bed, he slipped out of his bedroom, tiptoed along a series of long, creaking corridors and eventually reached her room. The success of the trip was only a little undermined by Cameron receiving in the post, some days later, a package from Sutton Park, Yorkshire. It contained a neatly pressed pair of spotless underpants.”

Samantha, 38, was born in London and grew up on the 300-acre estate of Normanby Hall, north Lincolnshire. Her parents divorced when she was small and both remarried. Her mother, Annabel, wed William Astor, now Viscount Astor.

Much has been made of Samantha trying to shake off her aristocratic upbringing during her art student days in Bristol, where she got a dolphin tattoo on her ankle and hung out with Tricky, the trip-hop star.

But today, as mother, wife, successful business woman and the Tories’ ‘first lady’, Samantha Cameron’s life couldn’t be more different.

As election fever mounts, she is poised to help her husband prepare for the biggest challenge of his life. If the Tories won, it would mean a huge upheaval for Samantha and her family. But it is one she is ready for.

“Our life would change and that would be daunting,” she has said. “Sure, we would have to make sacrifices but for me it would be a huge honour to do everything I possibly could to support him and make sure he could do the job to the best of his abilities.”

Whatever the outcome of the election, no doubt Samantha will relish the prospect of a visit home to her father and the sanctuary afforded by Sutton Park.