Fyning Hill Explained

Fyning Hill is a large estate near the village of Rogate in West Sussex. It has been owned by several prominent people including Kerry Packer and Roman Abramovich.

History

The main house contains 8 bedrooms with 5 reception rooms.[1] It was owned by Sir Albert Braithwaite until his death in 1959.[2] The estate was owned in the 1970s and 1980s by the Jordanian businessman Taj Hajjar, who was a friend of King Hussein of Jordan.

The biggest ever robbery in Sussex occurred on the property in May 1983 when £800,000 of jewellery was stolen. Hajjar put up an £80,000 reward, but no thief was ever apprehended.[3]

Hajjar sold the estate to the Australian publisher and broadcaster Kerry Packer for $5 million in May 1989. Packer built the headquarters for his polo team at Fyning Hill, and would arrive at the estate in May for the three-month English polo season.[4] [5] Packer subsequently bought the nearby Great House Farm for £580,000 in June 1989, and had acquired 600 acres of nearby countryside by June 1990.[6] [7] Packer's daughter, Gretel, was married on the estate in 1991.

The estate totalled 424 acres with five houses and nine cottages by September 1999 when Packer put the estate up for sale.[8] The estate was bought by the Russian businessman Roman Abramovich in 1999 for £12 million.[9]

Fyning Hill was included as part of the divorce settlement between Abramovich and his second wife, Irina Malandina, in 2007.[10] [11] The estate was valued at £18 million at the time.[11]

The size of the estate was listed as 420 acres in 2017.[12]

References

51.0193°N -0.8427°W

Notes and References

  1. Book: Mike Donaldson. Scott Poynting. Ruling Class Men: Money, Sex, Power. 2007. Peter Lang. 978-3-03911-137-4. 129.
  2. Book: The Estates Gazette. July 1959. 22.
  3. News: Chelsea billionaire's Sussex hideaway. 5 July 2003. The Argus. 20 March 2018.
  4. Book: Horace A. Laffaye. Profiles in Polo: The Players Who Changed the Game. 28 August 2015. McFarland. 978-1-4766-6273-2. 191.
  5. Book: Horace A. Laffaye. The Evolution of Polo. 29 May 2009. McFarland. 978-0-7864-5415-0. 229.
  6. News: Hamilton. Alan. Times Diary. 21 March 2018. The Times. 62427. 22 June 1989. 14. subscription . The Times Digital Archive.
  7. News: Bellamy. Rex. Village has taste of future it fears. 21 March 2018. The Times. 62427. 28 August 1990. 31. subscription . The Times Digital Archive.
  8. News: Smart moves. 21 March 2018. The Times. 62427. 8 September 1989. 21. subscription . The Times Digital Archive.
  9. Book: Stephen Armstrong. The Super-Rich Shall Inherit the Earth: The New Global Oligarachs and How They're Taking Over our World. 15 April 2010. Little, Brown Book Group. 978-1-84901-441-0. 33.
  10. Web site: Fyning Hill: The £18m South Downs estate once owned by Chelsea's Roman Abramovich. Donnelly. Luke. 1 March 2022. Sussex Live. 16 June 2022.
  11. News: Gadher. Dipesh. 12 June 2022. Abramovich 'handed millions to his children before sanctions hit'. live. The Times. https://archive.today/20220611232352/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/abramovich-handed-millions-to-his-children-before-sanctions-hit-vkfxzr0z8. 11 June 2022. limited. 16 June 2022. They divorced after 16 years, with Malandina reportedly negotiating a £155 million settlement. As part of the deal, she was given the £18 million Fyning Hill estate in West Sussex. .
  12. News: Roman Abramovich to split from third wife. 17 August 2017. The Times. 20 March 2018.

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