Taking the Dennis

£10 million home of the eccentric late publisher Felix Dennis for sale – including a leisure complex that cost £5 million to build but that is for sale for just £2.45 million

Magazine street-seller turned maverick millionaire publisher Felix Dennis didn’t do things by halves and that he spent £5 million building a ‘Treasure Island’ themed green oak aisle barn on his estate – which equally eccentrically spans both the counties of Warwickshire and Worcestershire – isn’t surprising. Following his death after he failed to beat throat cancer, the property has been placed on the market in eleven lots or as a whole for £9,470,000.

Dennis, who was famed for being the first person to say the word “cunt” on live British television in 1970, bought The Old Manor at Dorsington in 1987 and then set about creating himself an estate by acquiring further land and properties in the vicinity. Aside from his 5,750-acre Heart of England Forest (which is not included in the sale) and the green oak aisle barn, the Dorsington Estate includes a 3,897 square foot Elizabethan thatched main house and a staff flat, an 18^th century farmhouse, five cottages and a number of development sites.

Undoubtedly, however, it is the barn that is the most notable part of the property. Totally impractical in its design and featuring just one bedroom despite being 12,000 square foot in size, this “remarkable” folly is described as “the biggest barn to built of green oak for 300 years”. It houses a swimming pool, sauna steam room, solarium, banqueting hall and an Art Deco inspired cinem and could be converted to what the selling agents Knight Frank term a “truly magical house”. What a shame that would be as Dorsington is an estate that should be left in the hands of someone like Dennis; a man who once stated: “Making money is certainly the one addiction I cannot shake”.

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