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As Viscount Rothermere, proprietor of the Daily Mail, announces he's buying the 'i' newspaper, a reminder that he also owns c5,000 acres of Dorset, some via a Jersey-based company, and got £57,000 in public farm subsidies last year... (1/?) https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/nov/29/daily-mail-owner-buys-the-i-newspaper
(2/?) Viscount Rothermere - Jonathan Harmsworth - owns Ferne Park, an imposing stately pile in Dorset (pictured). Some of the parkland is registered to 'Harmsworth Trust Company (PTC) Ltd', based in the British Virgin Islands:
(3/?) As the DEFRA farm payments website shows, "Lord Rothermere t/a Ferne Park Estate" received £57k in farm subsidies in 2018 (search here: http://www.cap-payments.defra.gov.uk/SearchResults.aspx). He got £50k in 2017.
(4/?) Looking on Companies House for 'The Fourth Viscount Rothermere', you can see he's the director of various companies: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/Aw2NGqF8MvDUlKaDeOOJaFXawQ0/appointments
Besides the Daily Mail firms, there's this one - Bryanston (RFE) Ltd: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09586323
Besides the Daily Mail firms, there's this one - Bryanston (RFE) Ltd: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09586323
(5/?) In 2015, Viscount Rothermere bought the 4,700-acre Bryanston Estate from the Crown Estate for an undisclosed sum: https://www.thecrownestate.co.uk/en-gb/media-and-insights/news/2015-the-crown-estate-sells-bryanston-estate/
It was registered to Bryanston (RFE) Ltd; here's a map of it:
It was registered to Bryanston (RFE) Ltd; here's a map of it:
(6/?) Whilst Bryanston (RFE) Ltd's registered address is in the UK, it's intriguing that several of its Persons with Significant Control have correspondence addresses in Jersey (though not the Viscount himself): https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09586323/persons-with-significant-control
(7/?) Examination of Bryanston (RFE) Ltd's 2018 accounts reveals it is "a joint venture between trusts held for the benefit of the Rothermere family. The immediate shareholders are... both incorporated in Jersey." https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/09586323/filing-history
(8/?) Bryanston (RFE) Ltd's registered charge for acquiring the Bryanston Estate off the Crown also shows, intriguingly, that it acquired some unregistered land. I've not seen this before; usually, any land that changes hands should become registered.
(9/?) There is, it so happens, a big chunk of unregistered land right next to the edge of the Bryanston Estate - this bit at Tunworth (shown in orange) (from http://unregistered.whoownsengland.org/ ) -
