His heart may have been at the Molineux, but Sir Jack Hayward looked further afield for his property investments.
The multi-millionaire businessman, developer and philanthropist spent his millions that he wasn’t spending on trying to make a top flight club on an estate in West Sussex and a shooting estate in Scotland.
The former is now for sale at an asking price of £10,000,000.
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That’s six more zeros than the £10 Sir Jack was paid for .
But you could fit a fair few football pitches into the grounds at Lydhurst, as the estate in Warninglid in the High Weald area, comes with 222 acres of land.
Wolverhampton-born Sir Jack hadn’t lived there for some time, preferring the sunnier climes of the Bahamas where his family had had business interests since the 1950s.
He actually passed away in Florida, at the age of 91, in January 2015.
It is easy to see why Sir Jack was moved to buy his not-so-little piece of paradise in West Sussex.
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It is virtually a private hamlet, as it includes 11 other houses and apartments in addition to Lydhurst House, a fine country home built in the 1930s.
This charming period property sits in the heart of the estate and looks out across parkland gardens, lakes and woodland, and towards the South Downs.
It offers eight bedrooms, four main reception rooms and various smaller rooms and stores.
In spite of its size, it has a comfortable, even cosy feel, with traditional decor, floral curtains and fires blazing away merrily in the open fireplaces.
Sir Jack seems to . There are plenty of them in the sitting room, drawing room, library, in the bedroom and even in the cream and brown reception hall.
The kitchen feels like somewhere Downton’s Mrs Patmore would have approved of, with plenty of cupboard space, two Belfast sinks, a four-oven Aga and a communal work bench/table in the middle.
On the first floor, the master suite is the size of a studio flat. It not only easily accommodates a double bed but also has a reading area and space for what looks like a desk (for completing those late night business deals).
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The en-suite feels like it might have been unchanged since the 1930s, with its pale green walls, inset bath and beautiful shell-shaped lights.
The suite also has its own private dressing room.
There are three more large bedrooms on this floor, all of them with en-suite bathrooms.
On the second floor there are four attic bedrooms, served by two more bathrooms.
A one-bedroom annexe that is attached to the main house might be suitable for staff.
Wine connoisseurs would appreciate the size of the wine cellar in the basement.
The house has a games room, but it is separate from the main building. It is the perfect spot for enjoying a few frames of snooker or a game of table tennis.
There are 11 other properties on the estate.
They include the three-bedroom Aunt’s House; two gate lodges known as Gatehouse North and South, both with three bedrooms; the three to four bedroom Stable Cottage and two Stable Flats, one a two-bedroom, the other with one bedroom; two Garden Cottages, one with three bedrooms and the other with two; Stonedelph Cottages, one with two bedrooms, the other with three; and the three-bedroom Little House.
The gardens and park surrounding it are probably the estate’s real beauty.
The landscaped grounds taken in a croquet lawn then drop down to ponds and a ha-ha, which creates a boundary between the gardens and the wider estate.
There is a traditional walled garden, partly planted parterre style with box and sage hedges, cherry trees, a pleached beech hedge, herbaceous borders and a rose covered walkway.
The northern portion of the walled garden has various greenhouses, cold frames and a traditional red brick potting shed.
Lydhurst is approached through an avenue of Copper Beeches that flank the drive. . To the north are some smaller grass paddocks, and to the south the largest of the estate’s lakes.
In addition there are 79 acres of agricultural land that is let, along with the park, on a Farm Business Tenancy (FBT) to a nearby farmer.
Bishops Wood, Dudwick Wood and Harveys Wood, together with additional small parcels between fields, make up about 101 acres of mixed broadleaf woodland.
The Lydhurst Estate is being sold through Strutt and Parker in London on 0207 318 5185.