相続税が払えない！英伯爵、先祖伝来の山を3億円で売り出す
2014年5月8日(木) 15時34分
フランス通信社（AFP: L’Agence France-Presse）日本語版
http://news.so-net.ne.jp/article/detail/957784/ （リンク切れ）
【AFP＝時事】巨額の相続税の支払いに困った英国貴族が、風光明媚な湖水地方（Lake District）にある先祖伝来の山を売りに出した。
この貴族は、第8代ロンズデール伯爵（Earl of Lonsdale）ヒュー・ラウザー（Hugh Lowther）氏。イングランド（England）北西部の人気観光地・湖水地方に所有するブレンカスラ（Blencathra）山（標高868メート ル）を含む約1083ヘクタールの土地を、175万ポンド（約3億円）の売値で売却し、相続税の支払いの一部に充てようとしている。
報道によると、伯爵は父親の死去に伴い、900万ポンド（約15億5000万円）もの相続税を支払わなければならなくなった。英国では相続財産が32万5000ポンド（約5600万円）を超える場合、超過分の資産に対し一律40％の相続税が課税される。
伯爵によればラウザー家は、形状から「馬の鞍（Saddleback）」の異名で知られるブレンカスラ山と、そこに建てられたマナーハウス（邸宅）を過去 400年以上にわたって所有してきた。その由緒ある領地を「売らざるを得なくなった」ことについて、伯爵は「非常に大きな損失だ」と述べている。
「だが、2006年に父が死去したことに伴う相続税支払いのためには、資産を現金化しなくてはならない。私たちの目的は、ロンズデール伯爵家の遺産の中核的な部分をできるだけ無傷の状態で手元に残すことだ」（同伯爵）
ブレンカスラ山の購入者は、封建時代にこの土地の所有者が名乗っていた「スレルケルド荘園領主（Lord of the Manor of Threlkeld）」の名称の使用が認められ、独自の紋章を紋章院に申請することも許される。また、雌羊5471匹と若羊732匹、子羊200匹の放牧 権も併せて手に入れることになる。
【翻訳編集】AFPBB News
WANTED - one ‘daft Russian’ to buy a £1.75m mountain: Aristocratic landowner announces he is selling one of the most iconic peaks in the Lake District to pay off his death duties bill
- The iconic Lake District peak, Blencathra, is on the market for £1.75m
- The mountain is being sold by Lord Hugh Lowther, eighth Earl of Lonsdale
- He is selling the 3,000ft peak to pay off a £9m inheritance tax bill
- The aristocrat says he needs a ‘daft Russian’ with lots of money to buy it
The Daily Mail
By Steph Cockroft
Published: 15:16 GMT, Saturday 3 May 2014
Updated: 15:46 GMT, Saturday 3 May 2014
A landowner is selling one of the Lake District’s most famous peaks for £1.75m - and is hoping ‘some daft Russian’ will come along and take it off his hands.
Lord Hugh Lowther, the eight Earl of Lonsdale, is flogging the 3,000ft Blencathra mountain in a bid to pay off a £9m inheritance bill.
But the 64-year-old, who lives there with his third wife Lady Elizabeth, admits he needs some ‘show off’ to buy the iconic peak - because any prospective buyer won’t be able to do anything with it.
[Picture 1]
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Lord Hugh Lowther, the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, pictured with his wife Lady Elizabeth, is selling Blencathra mountain in the Lake District for £1.75m
[Picture 2]
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The iconic mountain, commonly known as the Saddleback, is being sold - complete with a ceremonial lordship - to help pay off a £9m inheritance tax bill
Speaking to the Telegraph, Lord Lonsdale said: ‘Who’s got the money? We know the Chinese have got it, and the Russians have got it.
‘We’re hoping there will be some daft Russian (who wants it) to show off.’
The aristocrat, whose family has owned the peak for 400 years, has already sold a Turner painting, a derelict farm standing and a couple of vacant cottages to try and reduce his inheritance tax bill.
But with just 18 months to pay every penny, Lord Lonsdale decided it was time to sell the peak - with a ceremonial lordship title chucked in for free.
Despite its stark beauty and prime location, Lord Lonsdale knows selling the peak will be hard work.
As it is part of the Lake District National Park, which is in Cumbria, any buyer will be unable to develop or build on the peak.
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Lord Lonsdale, 64, said he can think of ‘better things to spend his money on’ but hopes ‘some daft Russian’ will want the mountain so they can ‘show off’
The new owner will also be unable to do anything about the thousands of walkers who cross the peak each year.
Lord Lonsdale admits he can ‘think of better things’ to spend his money on, but hopes an extravagant international might feel otherwise.
If his wish for a ‘daft Russian’ does not come true, Lord Lonsdale hopes the government or National Trust will step in instead.
He told the paper: ‘Once the duties are gone, I can have a better way of life. I can go and buy myself a super yacht in the south of France or a house in the Bahamas. Why not?
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The mountain, one of the most renowned landmarks in the Cumbrian national park, would still be protected from development even if it is sold
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A favourite among tourists and walkers, is only the second mountain to be put on the market, after Snowdon in 1998
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Estate agent John Robson said he hoped someone would buy it, in the same way someone might buy a ‘stunning piece of artwork’
‘We can still walk on it, and fly over it, and do what the hell we like with it. It’s not going anywhere.’
Lord Lonsdale inherited the peak, which covers an area of 2,676 acres, from his father in 2006.
The iconic mountain is commonly known as Saddleback, due to the distinctive drop from its peak.
On a clear day, it gives view over to the Isle of Man and North Wales.
But Lord Lonsdale is still embarking on new ground. Blencathra is only the second mountain to be put on the market, since Snowdon went up for sale in 1998.
[Picture 7]
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The peak, which has six separate fell tops, has been in the Lowther family for 400 years
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Covering nearly 2,700 acres, the mountain gives stunning views, sometimes as far-reaching as the Isle of Man and North Wales
It will not have a For Sale sign to alert potential buyers, but the mountain will be advertised in a glossy brochure, before being bought under sealed bids.
Lord Lonsdale, who has several lordships under his belt, is also selling the lordship of the manor of Threlkeld - a ceremonial title, dating back to the 18th Century - to go with the mountain.
John Robson, managing director of Lonsdale Settlement Estates, said: ‘It is one of the biggest tourist destinations in this country.
He said: ‘We hope someone will buy it in the way they would buy a stunning piece of art work. But instead of a picture of the landscape you are getting the real thing.
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Lord Lonsdale said he will still ‘walk on it, fly over it and do what the hell we like with it’ when he sells the iconic peak
[Picture 10]
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Lord Lonsdale says he plans to buy a super yacht in the south of France or a house in the Bahamas once he sells Blencathra
‘The mountain features in the Wainwright mountain guides. It is a unique opportunity to own something so unusual.
‘It is the stand out mountain in the Lake District, with a truly beautiful landscape.’
The Lowther family have a long history and Lord Lonsdale’s father, who was the seventh generation to own the land, inherted the estate in 1953, aged 39.
Blencathra’s reputation as a tourist attraction has its roots in the 18th century, when people would travel by horseback or carriage along the new Penrith to Keswick turnpike road to enjoy the spectacular views.
It was also a favourite of the fell-walker and guide book author Alfred Wainwright.
‘Saddleback’: Mountain for sale, yours for £1.75 million
Blencathra in Cumbria has been in the Lowther family for 400 years. Its owner, Lord Lonsdale explains why he is selling, a family feud and life as a long-distance lorry driver
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The Earl of Lonsdale, who is selling his mountain in Cumbria, Blencathra Photo: Chris Watt
Telegraph Travel
By Tom Rowley
7:30AM BST Saturday 03 May 2014
Hugh, the eighth Earl of Lonsdale, Viscount Lowther, Baron of Whitehaven and Lord of the Manor of Threlkeld, is eating an ice cream with one hand and holding a smouldering cigarette in the other. Somehow, he is also keeping his Land Rover on the road. “We went through the pictures and furniture first,” he says, each word peppering the glovebox with shavings of ice cream cone. “We sold a Turner for £1.4 million, a derelict farm steading and a couple of cottages which were vacant. And now Blencathra.”
Selling Blencathra, though, is rather different to flogging a couple of old paintings, no matter how valuable. It is not the name of some obscure artist but of a mountain, towering 2,850ft above the Lake District. And nobody sells mountains.
And Blencathra is one of the most renowned landmarks in the fells, affectionately known as “Saddleback” for the distinctive drop from its peak. As long ago as 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was inspired by a visit to write of the “tyrannous and strong” winds battering “stern Blencathra”, and it was a favourite of the fell-walker and guide book author Alfred Wainwright.
No “for sale” board will be erected, but there is an estate agent’s brochure, and sealed bids will be expected no later than July. For about £1.75 million, a prospective buyer would own 2,677 acres. Every mossy flank, steep crag and snow-lined peak would, legally speaking, be theirs.
The imposing summit, which gives sweeping views as far as North Wales and the Isle of Man on a clear day, is described by the estate agents as “a unique investment opportunity”.
Yet there is very little the new owner could actually do with his purchase. Blencathra has long been incorporated into the Lake District National Park, preventing development, and walkers will always have the right to clamber up its slopes. In fact, the only income it produces is a paltry £1,000 a year in rent from a small hydroelectric plant at its base.
[Picture 2]
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Blencathra towers 2,850ft above the Lake District
Even Lord Lonsdale questions the wisdom of any purchaser, confessing, as we drive along a muddy track in Blencathra’s imposing shadow: “I can think of better things to spend my money on.”
So who might stump up? He hopes the Government or the National Trust might step in. Failing that, he sees a lucrative market overseas. “Who’s got the money?” he asks. “We know the Chinese have got it, and the Russians have got it. We’re hoping there will be some daft Russian [who wants it] to show off.”
To entice just such a buyer, he is also throwing in his lordship of the manor of Threlkeld. In the 18th century, this required tenants in the small village of Threlkeld, at the foot of the mountain, to help the lord with ploughing, mowing, shearing and clipping sheep.
These days, the title is purely ceremonial, and Lord Lonsdale does not sound too upset to part with it. “I am lord of the manor of an awful lot more lordships,” says the 64-year-old, struggling to recall an exact figure.
Nor does he care for titles, preferring to be called simply “Hugh”. Locals knew his father, the 7th Earl, as “Lordy”, and still refer to Lord Lonsdale affectionately as “Laa [little] Lordy”. He certainly does not dress to impress, appearing with unkempt hair in scruffy brown cords. He has constantly got a cigarette, and an anecdote, on the go, and will finish both with an earthy laugh.
Before he inherited the earldom on his father’s death in 2006, he spent 15 years as a long-distance lorry driver, and he still likes nothing more than messing about with big toys, driving his friends to shoots in a huge former Army lorry, inspecting properties on the estate with his home-made drone and flying over the fells in his microlight.
He becomes most animated about Blencathra when describing the view from above. An accident in his teenage years prevents him walking for long stretches, so this is the closest he has come to matching the joy of fell-walkers.
“It is great for riding air currents,” he raves, as we clamber down from the car and he points out peaty bogs hundreds of feet deep. “I went flying with a gliding expert a couple of years ago and we spent two and a half hours at 10,000ft above Blencathra with no engine, just riding the air. Wow. We were right in the clouds, and it was absolutely stunning.”
So, after nearly 400 years of continual stewardship by the Lowther family (who were granted the earldom of Lonsdale in the 18th century), he admits he will be “sorry to see it go”.
As with the Turner and the vacant properties, the sale is necessary to meet a £9 million inheritance tax bill. Lord Lonsdale must pay off the full sum on his late father’s estate within the next 18 months. He has decided to sell Blencathra instead of occupied houses, which would have risked evicting tenants.
Paying the bill has dragged on for so long because of a long-running rift within the family. A year after his father died, Lord Lonsdale launched a legal action against his half-brother, Charles Lowther, a cousin, Viscount Ullswater, and his stepmother, Caroline Lowther, claiming he had been disinherited “in all but name”. In a High Court writ, he claimed his father made an “illegible mark” on legal documents a few days before he died, meaning he would receive less than a fifth of rental income from the estate.
Then, in 2009, the dispute came to a sudden end. Both sides issued a joint statement, insisting that Lord Lonsdale accepted that his relatives had acted “entirely properly” and that he withdrew all claims against them.
Today, in Lord Lonsdale’s words, it sounds rather less amicable. “I will never speak to another Lowther in my life,” he says. “Ever. Ever. I have had this throughout my whole life. I will have nothing further to do with them.”
Even in death, the feud will continue, given Lord Lonsdale’s refusal to be buried in the Lowther family mausoleum. “I’m going in my garden. Why should I mix with the Lowthers when they’ve been such -------- all my life?”
The Lowthers have always been a colourful family. In the case of the current Earl’s great-grandfather’s brother, the 5th Earl, this was literally so: he is still known as the “Yellow Earl” for his insistence that the entire estate should bear the colour. There was a fleet of yellow cars, a regiment of yellow-liveried servants and a greenhouse to grow yellow gardenias for his buttonhole.
He lived extravagantly, socialising with Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser, who bought him a Daimler, and conducting a string of high-profile affairs with actresses. All of which explains Edward VII’s remark that the 5th Earl was “almost an emperor, not quite a gentleman”.
He died in 1944 with no heir, having bankrupted the family’s coal mines. His successor, his youngest brother Lancelot, died soon afterwards, and Lord Lonsdale’s father, the 7th Earl, inherited the estate in 1953, at the age of 30.
He rescued the estate’s finances, largely by abandoning Lowther Castle, the ancestral seat, and selling off swathes of property, including the town of Whitehaven. He was also popular with the Duke of Edinburgh, who came up to Cumbria for the family’s horse trials each summer, and was a regular guest at Windsor Castle.
But he had a complicated private life, marrying four times, bringing up four sons and four daughters. He was also accused of sexual abuse by his eldest son, the current Lord Lonsdale, who now says his father was “the epitome of hell”.
Father and son never got on, and their relationship deteriorated further when Lord Lonsdale married his first wife, Pamela, the daughter of a railway crossing keeper, aged 22. “He didn’t approve,” he says now. “But he wasn’t marrying her – I was.” They divorced after 10 years, however, and he married his second wife, Angela, in 1986. “That was finished in four or five years.”
Unable to earn an income from the estate, this is when Lord Lonsdale took up lorry driving. For 15 years, he crisscrossed Britain and Europe each week. “I went into farming for a while but I found it far more lucrative to get into trucking. I’ve still got a valid Class 1 [heavy goods vehicle licence].”
Eventually, he found happiness with his third wife, Lady Elizabeth, who grew up in nearby Penrith. During our day together, she keeps her husband in check as he regularly careers off-message, and smartens him up for the camera, chiding him for wearing scuffed old slippers outdoors and for smoking in shot (“I’ll just have a couple of tokes first,” he insists).
At last, he hopes to emerge from his family’s shadow as soon as he has paid the inheritance tax bill. “Once the death duties are gone, I can have a better way of life,” he says. “I can go and buy myself a super yacht in the south of France or a house in the Bahamas. Why not?”
In the meantime, he must find a buyer for Blencathra. Regardless of its legal ownership, however, he will still regard it as part of his landscape.
“We can still walk on it, and fly over it, and do what the hell we like with it,” he says, pausing before one last quip. “It’s not going to go anywhere.”
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