Controversial ex-owner of Blackpool Football Club Owen Oyston – associate of paedophiles Max Clifford and Stuart Hall and also ‘Coronation Street’ actor ‘Cock Roache’ Bill Roache – puts his gaudy gold-clad Lancashire mansion up for rent for the astonishing sum of £40,000 per month
Flamboyant fedora hat sporting “miner to millionaire” Owen Oyston undoubtedly revolutionised the estate agency business in the 1980s by producing television adverts where, suited and booted, he ended up falling backwards into swimming pools. This Labour supporter made millions during the process and then built a radio and magazine empire. He was then sent to prison for rape and indecent assault whilst accusing Tory ministers of setting him up and continuing to protest his innocence.
A Granada Television Crown Court actor in his past also and married twice to a ‘Miss Blackpool,’ County Durham born Oyston was the man during whose reign Blackpool Football Club was catapulted into the stratosphere of the Premier League very briefly in 2010. Then, during a time when his £11 million pay package was exposed to be outrageously higher than even Wayne Rooney’s, it all began to go very, very sour; so sour, in fact, that the Oystons were ordered to pay £31 million to his Latvian co-owner Valērijs Belokoņs (also known as Valeri Belokon) to buy out his share in the business.
Now, after a long, complex and very expensive battle with Belokon – a banking tycoon associate of President Donald Trump and Prince Charles turned alleged money launderer – over control of the team known as ‘The Tangerines,’ Mr Oyston has now turned to attempting to rent out one of his properties, Grade II* listed Quernmore Park Hall, near Lancaster for the astonishing sum of £40,000 per month. Given how gauchely and gaudily the 12-bedroomed mansion’s ‘Hyacinth Bucket-esque’ interior is currently presented, one wonders if he and his Wembley, London based estate agents are having a giggle.
It is not known where Mr Oyston – who paid fellow Sandgrown’un estate agency tycoons Eileen and Howard Oldroyd £1.75 million for the 26,681 square foot Georgian mansion in 2014 and then tried to sell it for £3.25 million or 86% more in 2018 – is currently himself bedding down. His last known abode was a grotty hotel room above Blackpool Football Club whilst repeated ex-wife Vicki is believed to remain at their Elizabethan style manor house, Claughton Hall in the nearby Lune Valley.
If you like gold and gaud, Quernmore Park Hall could be the house for you. The décor does not seem to have been updated during by the current owner and would not look out of place on the set of ‘Dynasty.’Convicted paedophile Stuart Hall with ‘Coronation Street’ actor William Roache (nicknamed ‘Cock Roache’ for boasting about having slept with over a 1,000 women and being involved in bizarre Druid rituals), convicted rapist Owen Oyston and four women. The three men were all for a time directors of Oystons Estate Agency – a firm that ceased to exist circa August 2019.
Owen Oyston falling into a swimming pool in a Granada Television advertisement in 1986 (watch from 2:58-minutes until 3:28-minutes) whilst offering a £120,000 prize to those prepared to sell their properties through his estate agency.
The Names & Numbers – Quernmore Park Hall, Quernmore, Lancaster, LA2 9HN, United Kingdom
February 2018 – Offered for sale for £3.25 million ($4.23 million, €3.86 million or درهم15.52 million) through MSW Hewetsons and Knight Frank.
June 2014 – Sold for £1.75 million ($2.28 million, €2.08 million or درهم8.36 million) to the Oyston family.
October 2009 – Offered for sale by Eileen and Howard Oldroyd.
1990 – Purchased by Eileen and Howard Oldroyd from William Francis Garnett. The couple founded the Blackpool based Oldroyd Publishing Group in 1974 – a firm that produces promotional materials for estate agents.
1842 – Sold to cotton merchant James Garnett and remodeled.
1794 – Sold to Charles Gibson of Preston. The present house was built on the site between 1795 and 1798 and stood in lands extending to 1,900 acres.
1675 – Passed to Sir Thomas Preston of Furness and then passed by marriage to Hugh Clifford, 2nd Baron Clifford of Chudleigh.
1630 – Sold by the Crown to Roger Downes of Wardley.
The Louche Life Of Owen Oyston
The thankfully since croaked paedophile Max Clifford was the PR for Owen Oyston for a time. In 1997, after being hired to represent him prior to the latter’s jailing, creepy Clifford remarked: “[Owen] Oyston is many things, including very arrogant, but he is not a rapist.”In 2013, the ‘Mirror’ reported that the tycoon’s magazine publishing firm, Ridings Publishing, lost £2 million in 2011 whilst his estate agency firm, Oystons Ltd, recorded losses of £300,000 in 2001 and £600,000 in 2010. His fellow directors at Ridings Publishing numbered the convicted paedophile Stuart Hall and the actor Bill Roache – who once said of abuse victims: “Everything that happens to us has been a result of what we did in previous lives.” After a rightful outcry from victims, Roache later apologised.In May 2018, during a court case between Owen Oyston and Valeri Belokon, the former was branded “vindictive,” “nasty” and someone who was now “hell bent on making life as bloody as possible for his wife” according to ‘The Blackpool Gazette.’ The paper added: “Mr Oyston owes £24 million to Valeri Belokon to buy back his shares in the club after Justice Marcus Smith ruled last year that Mr Oyston had ‘illegitimately stripped’ Blackpool FC of assets after it was promoted to the Premier League in 2010. It was found that the Oystons had unfairly prejudiced the Latvian, who accused them of ‘improperly’ extracting tens of millions of pounds from the club.” Whilst her husband was in jail between 1996 and 1999, Vicki Oyston (neé Burns) – who was married from 1964 to 1982 first and then again for a second time from 1988 (she again sought a divorce in 2018, it is unknown as to whether this has been granted) to now 88-year-old Owen John Oyston – ran Blackpool Football Club. In 2014, ‘The Sunday Times’ listed the family as being worth £100 million.Subsequently, one of the couple’s children, Karl Oyston (pictured front left), became chairman of Blackpool Football Club in 1999. He served in that role until 2018, but was loathed and detested by fans. The family owned the club from May 1988 to until February 2019 when the High Court appointed receivers and removed Owen Oyston and his daughter, Natalie Christopher, from the board.The hatred of Blackpool F.C. fans for the Oyston family became so intense that there were protests against them. The club was eventually acquired out of receivership in 2019 when locally born hedge fund owner Simon Sadler purchased a 96.2% share in the club. In 2021, the Segantii Capital founder commented: “Two years in, and I’m still full of awe and wonder at being the owner of my hometown football club. I know that it’s a great honour and privilege to be the custodian of Blackpool Football Club, and I will continue to do my bit to protect, cherish and nurture it for the future generations of fans to come.”The County Durham sewing machine salesman turned estate agent turned media magnate and football club owner is a decidedly eccentric sort. Aside from continuing to protest his innocence after serving three years in prison for the rape of a woman whose evidence was decidedly flimsy, flamboyant fedora wearing tycoon Owen Oyston married a former Miss Blackpool twice and kept bison in the park of his marital home, Claughton Hall in Lancashire’s Lune Valley.Grade I listed Claughton Hall itself was moved from the bottom of the hill to the top between 1932 and 1933. It remains the correspondence address of Vicki Oyston on Companies House records.
Quernmore Park Hall – More Photos
Quernmore Park Hall has its own website on which it is marketed as being “perfect for a dream wedding, a romantic getaway, special occasions, corporate breaks and social family gatherings.” The site mentions also that it is “in the process of being licensed for civil ceremonies and even boasts its own chapel.”The main hall of the mansion has a domed ceiling and glazed cupola. It features plasterwork depicting swords and serpents in its four corners. This Victorian chintz packed sitting room resembles something you might find in ‘Waiting For God’ or a television adaptation of Catherine Cookson’s ‘The Girl.’Yet more Victoriana follows along with shagpile carpets in another reception room. Though this may appeal to pensioners, someone with the capability of paying £40,000 per month for a rental property these days – be they a tech titan or a EuroMillions winner – most likely would prefer something a little more contemporary.For those with religious predilections, there is even a private chapel at the property. It comes complete with shelves featuring statuettes and there’s even a throne style chair ideal for someone of great self-importance.Mr and Mrs Oldroyd clearly got a huge discount by bulk buying red shagpile. Strangely, in the billiards room, they didn’t go to town on curtains, however.The entrance hallway – painted in an especially sickly shade of yellow – has yet more statuettes including a pair clearly meant to resemble “ever so humble” butlers.Mr and Mrs Oldroyd decided to go for a patterned view shagpile for the staircase. Though they likely thought it classy, it would be more suitable for an office block in Oldham.The pattern would certainly not be helpful to anyone with a hangover.The full-height domed ceiling of the main hall was installed by Alexander Mills in 1842 at the instructions of “prosperous cotton merchant” William Garnett. He served as MP for Lancaster from 1857 to 1864. Five generations of Garnetts lived at the hall between 1843 and 1990.This modern kitchen has an appearance more suited to the home of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’s’ Hyacinth Bucket’s bungalow or the home of “the lovely” Debbie McGee than a Grade II* listed Georgian mansion.More appropriate in style to a house built in the 1790s is the old kitchen – listed in Knight Frank’s brochure as being “for informal entertaining.” It could prove useful to ‘Downton Abbey’ creator Julian Fellowes in a future period drama if some of the knickknacks were cleared away.Yet more clutter fills this 37-foot long ‘garden room.’ Someone might want to call in the perma-tanned peacock David Dickinson MBE to see if there are any gems amongst the junk. For those with a fetish for kitchens, the mansion has not one but four and also a room for dealing with fish, a bakery, a bread oven and a butchery in addition. Call in high-as-a-kite Nigella or the dreaded Mary Berry!A bedroom with 1990s fitted furniture that only the aforementioned Hyacinth Bucket would fall in love with.Other bedrooms – some given names such as ‘Strawberry,’ ‘Christmas,’ ‘Mushroom’ and ‘Hydrangea’ – have been a chintz look that would send Kelly Hoppen running for the hills. The wallpaper is more ‘council house chic’ than ‘country house class.’The only bathroom photographed in marketing material features especially naff ‘shell’ decorative touches. Given the vast size of the room, the minute shower looks a little out of place and one could imagine bathtub bonk loving Prince Andrew would be especially disappointed by this ‘four-piece suite.’The rear garden has been peppered with bushes that look like they could have been hand-delivered by E.T.A classic vista ruined by an out of place blue vase that, yet again, only Hyacinth Bucket could love.An aerial view shows the classic proportions of what could actually easily revert to being a classy country house with the help of the visitations of a fair few skips. This is a building that has “the bones” but needs to be stripped of the “brash” décor of Polly Urquhart of ‘Howards’ Way’ and made over more in the style of ‘Baroness Thrifty’s’ Burnham Westgate Hall.The setting is indeed private and when wealthy Preston lawyer owned the property, he had the nearby road moved so his home would not be visible to the “vulgar eyes” of unsuitable passerby.Naff statuettes installed in the gardens and suburban trelliswork might appeal to Alan Titchmarsh MBE, but, frankly, it’s time someone called in the Italian born Lady (Arabella) Lennox-Boyd – a nearby neighbour at Gresgarth Hall in Caton – to perform wonders on the topiary.The parkland beyond thankfully still retains some fine specimens.Will this “fully furnished” classical country house rent for £40,000? At this price, given its location, it seems highly unlikely. 99 Home’s marketing material references that: “Staff are employed and remain on hand to care for the house and gardens” and that “they have their own quarters,” but does this justify the pricing for a house that is 257 miles or 4 hours 52 minutes drive from central London?The site plan of the ‘mini estate’ shows that most of the land is woodland. In total, there are 23.23 acres of land and the main house and its ancillary accommodation extends to 26,681 square foot.
A graduate of the London School of Economics, Matthew Steeples is a writer and marketing consultant. He conceived The Steeple Times as a media arena to fill the void between the Mail Online, The Huffington Post and such organs as the New York Social Diary in 2012.
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