5 of Bucks' super-rich who made it onto 2019 rich list

And among the super-rich people from Bucks who made it onto the list are these five well-known faces. 

The top spot for UK's richest went to industry and finance giants Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who are worth £22bn.

And while South Bucks can't quite match that level of riches, we've rounded up five names whose bank balances are healthy enough to get them into the top 1,000 richest people in the UK.

All information provided by The Sunday Times. 

Stephen Shanly meeting Richard Branson after an Atlantic row for charity 

230 SHANLY
Construction
£600m ▲£88m from 2018 

Shanly Group was set up in 1969 Michael Shanly and has completed more than 1,000 development sites in affluent areas of southeast England, including Maidenhead, Marlow and Beaconsfield.

The firm has a portfolio of 200 retail, office, industrial, marina, leisure and residential properties.

The two largest, separate companies — Sorbon Homes and Sorbon Investments — showed profits of £57.8m on £212m turnover in 2017 are worth £580m in total.

The family’s foundation, established 20 years ago by Shanly, 73, has donated more than £13m to charity and planted 20,000 trees in Hertfordshire in the Woodland Trust’s Heartwood Forest project.

Shanly Homes and Sorbon Estates are based in Aylesbury End, Beaconsfield. 

Last year's position 249.

Pic. BBC

283 PETER JONES
Telecoms and Investment
£490m ▲£5m from last year.

Peter Jones, 53, has a home in Beaconsfield and has been a panellist on all 16 series of Dragons’ Den. 

He bought camera group Jessops - which has a branch in High Wycombe - for just under £2m in 2013 and is rebooting the chain for the 21st century.

He has made at least £100m from sales of various businesses and has a £250m Marlow-based group called Brandpath, which has its HQ off Fieldhouse Lane.
 

Last year's position 266

464 MIKE CLARE
Bedding and Investment
£270m No change from last year.

Mike Clare, who set up and later sold Dreams beds, is set to launch Buzz Beds this summer, focusing on online sales and selling through established retailers.

11 years ago he sold his bed empire for £222m.

He spent some of the cash on three maritime forts in the Solent, two of which he converted into luxury retreats via his Buckinghamshire-based Amazing Venues.

Clare, 64, put all three on sale last year for £11m, along with Ackergill Tower, a castle in Caithness converted to a hotel, for £3.9m.
 

Last year's position 448.

Pic. Frank Dwyer

602 THE MCALPINE FAMILY
Construction
£202m No change

Building giant Sir Robert McAlpine has the job of refursbishing Elizabeth Tower, home to big Ben, until 2021.

Parent company Newarthill, based in Hemel Hempstead showed a £20.2m loss in 2017 on higher turnover of £942.5m.

The late Sir William McAlpine died in 2018 and lived at his country estate home in Fawley. He is survived by his wife Lady Judith McAlpine.

Lady McAlpine is well known for her love of animals, and has been known to keep a wide range of species at the Fawley Estate. 

In the last few years a capybara and a coati have escaped and been spotted on the loose across Marlow.

Last year's position 579.

Pic. Google

978 GARY AND CATHERINE GRANT
Retailing

£120m New entry

Toy-shop supremo Grant has defied retail trends by refusing to trade on Sundays since becoming a evangelical Christian in 1991.

Nor will he stock Halloween or Harry Potter toys, 

He has said: “I’m accountable to God, not to shareholders.”

The Entertainer, his toy-shop chain, has grown to 140 outlets while a succession of rivals have failed, including Toys R Us.

After leaving school school with a single O-level he found work at a bike shop in Amersham, his home town.

He married Catherine, 65, in 1979 and a sideline selling skateboards grew into a business when they bought a house that doubled as a warehouse.

Two years later they bought a local toy shop that they renamed the Entertainer.

The couple own it all with their four children, two of whom work for the business.

They give 10 per cent of profits to charity each year.

Grant celebrated his 60th birthday last September with a shindig at the company’s head office in Amersham and a Lego-themed cake made by Catherine.