Flickr/Eva Rinaldi Sir James Dyson now owns more land than the Queen.
Sir James Dyson, the billionaire inventor behind the famous bagless vacuum cleaner, now owns more land in England than the Queen after buying another 3,000 acres.
The Sunday Times reports Dyson, 67, has just purchased the 3,000-acre Cranwell and Roxholme estate in Lincolnshire. It takes his total portfolio up to 25,000 acres — 5,000 more than Her Majesty's private Sandringham estate in Norfolk. Much of the Queen's property isn't owned by the royal outright. The businessman bought his latest grounds from the Crown Estate.
The acquisition means Dyson, who's worth around £3 billion, now has one of the biggest private landholdings in the country — surpassing countless aristocrats and nobles who inherited vast piles from their ancestors. Dyson boasts other acreages such as Dodington Park in Gloucestershire and the Nocton and Carrington estates, both in Lincolnshire. He also has a townhouse in London's Chelsea district, a home in Norfolk, and a property in the south of France.
Today, the inventor's British landholdings easily top the Duke of Bedford, who owns a 13,000-acre pile in Bedfordshire. It also passes the Duke of Marlborough's Oxfordshire domain at Blenheim, which is about 11,000 acres. He's got more than three times that of the Duke of Wellington, who has a comparatively meagre 7,000 acres in Hampshire.
Dyson told The Sunday Times that he feels at home in the countryside. He grew up in rural north Norfolk, and although his fortune lies in engineering and technology, he is becoming more involved in agriculture.
“I'm enjoying farming in Lincolnshire, which is similar to Norfolk," he tells the paper.
Dyson runs The James Dyson Foundation, which supports and nurtures innovation in design and engineering. He also invests significantly in future farming techniques to help make the industry more efficient; his latest Lincolnshire purchase appears to be with that in mind.
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