In 2016, David Howden CBE, an insurance magnate, was in the market to buy an estate when he encountered Grade I-listed Cornbury House, near Charlbury, Oxfordshire.
The home of Robin Cayzer, 3rd Baron Rotherwick, was, however, not for sale. But it was available to let – for £30,000 a month.
“I thought, ‘that’s not me’,” Howden remembers. “But then my wife, Fi, said, ‘we don’t own these things anyway, we’re just passing through’.”
Howden “mentally crossed the Rubicon” and the deal was done: a 20-year lease on Cornbury House with a licence over the park, leases on estate properties and the farm business tenancies.
“It works very well,” says Howden. He has, seemingly, the best of all worlds: a big house, the opportunity to make it his own – “we’ve invested millions” – and the resources to do it, since the Howden Group, which he founded in 1994 and retains a 7pc stake in, was valued at £10bn in 2025.
“I have the choice one day whether to extend the lease or not, but my children will never have it hanging round their necks,” he says.
