Conran’s family in dark over reason for £15m sale of estate
HE MARRIED four times, fathered five children and revolu-tionised the nation’s shops and restau-rants — amassing a fortune of tens of millions as he did so.
But I can reveal that the final dream of Habitat founder Sir Terence Conran has turned to dust — less than two years after his death aged 88.
Known for his unbounded lust for life and for women in particular — ‘Terence,’ observed a friend, ‘loves pushing secretaries into cupboards’ — Conran channelled his energies into one last passion: creating ‘a thoroughly modern, sustainable estate for the 21st century’.
This would, he hoped, secure the future of Barton Court, a 17th- century manor house near Hungerford in Berkshire he bought as a wreck in 1971 and magnificently restored. Both the house and the estate, according to one visitor, were to be ‘overseen by the Conran family’. But no longer: I can reveal that the house has been sold for £15 million, despite Conran’s vision, which included selling fruit and vegetables from greenhouses and a massive walled garden. Members of the family appear to be in the dark about quite why the sale has gone ahead. One tells me that it is the executors of Conran’s will who are selling the property, not his widow, Lady Conran.
The interior designer Vicki Davis married Sir Terence in 2000 at Chelsea Town Hall. His children — Sebastian and Jasper by his second wife, Super-woman author Shirley Conran, and Tom, Sophie and Ned by his third, cookery writer Caroline Herbert — only learned of it later.
That was no accident: Conran’s children, it w a s playfully said, needed an appointment to see him.
The executors of his will decline to com-ment. But I can disclose that Vicki has already left the house and a new family has moved in.