Polly Put The Kettle On

Palladian mansion that was home to Charles Burnett III, the driver of the “fastest kettle in the world,” for sale for £10 million after his death in a helicopter accident

Charles Burnett III (1956 – 2018) lived life to the full. English born, but primarily resident in Houston, Texas, this eccentric member of a family with interests in Selfridges, Fortnum & Mason and Primark was known for “life of fabulous excess featuring beautiful women, homes all over the world, a vast collection of tanks, planes, speedboats and fast cars – and even a sex dungeon [at his Texan residence].”

A nephew of Galen Weston and a man with an allowance reported at £25 million per year, Burnett tragically met his end in a helicopter crash in Raton, New Mexico alongside Roy Bennett, a leading opponent of Robert Mugabe, in January 2018. The only survivor of the crash was his girlfriend of twenty years, Andra Cobb, and now his main home, Newtown Park in the New Forest is for sale for £10 million.

The scene of “raucous parties” where “mock bombs exploded in the grounds as off-duty soldiers reenacted battles from the Falklands War” in 2007, Newtown Park is described as a “striking Grade II* listed Georgian house at the heart of a 405 acre estate with views over the Solent” by agents Knight Frank.

Accommodation, spread over five floors, totals 16,016 and aside from 5 reception rooms, 11 bedrooms and 11 bathrooms, the house has an observatory, wine cellar, CCTV room and strong room. Befitting of a man with a passion for cars – and someone famed for breaking the land speed record for a steam powered car in 2009 – there is “extensive garaging” and also a grass airstrip with its own hangar.

Newtown Park is sold with three cottages, an estate office, farm buildings, a tennis court and a swimming pool and as well as formal gardens, there is a walled garden, parkland, arable land and woodland.

Ownership – Newtown Park Estate, Portmore, Lymington, New Forest, Hampshire, SO41 5RN, United Kingdom

October 2019 – Knight Frank offer Newtown Park at a price of £10 million ($13 million, €11.6 million or درهم47.7 million).

1996 – Sold to a trust and subsequently occupied by Charles Burnett III. Mr Burnett added an observatory on the roof amongst other alterations.

Late 1980s – Sold to Wensley Haydon-Bailey along with additional farmland. Restoration of the gardens and house commenced.

1974 – Sold with 26 acres to an architect, Victor Syburn, and converted into three self-contained flats.

1968 – Sold to John Howlett and used as a film set.

1950s – Unoccupied and sold to a tenant farmer, Robert Prtty.

1939 – 1945 – Used to store furniture and fittings removed from Cunard liners. Airfield sited in the grounds.

1858 – Sold by the Plowden family to Jules Hyacinthe du Plessis (angalicised to DuPlessis).

1803 – Estate increases in size to 340 acres and a park is developed.

1716 – House built and occupied by owners, the Mitford family prior to being sold to Sir John d’Oyly and then Henry Chiceley Plowden sometime between 1791 and 1803.

1670 – First mention of Newtown Park when a claim for Forest Rights with 76 acres of land was made.

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