Ramsbury - Notable Residents

Notable Residents

Local people are known as Ramsbury Bulldogs, contrasting with the neighbouring village of Aldbourne, where the locals are known as Dabchicks.

The village's notable residents have included Sir Francis Burdett, a radical Whig politician, and his daughter Angela Burdett-Coutts. In 1837 Angela became the richest woman in England when she inherited her grandfather's fortune. Over several years she gave most of this money away to good causes. By the time she died in 1906, Angela Burdett-Coutts had given away nearly three million pounds. Both lived in Ramsbury Manor, originally built in 1680 by John Webb, a son-in-law of Inigo Jones. Ramsbury Manor was stated by the 1966 Guinness Book of Records to have been the "most expensive" house in Britain, bought by an American property dealer in May 1965 for £275,000, in total with its 460 acres of land, for £650,000. It is now the home of Harry Hyams, the property tycoon who built the office block Centre Point at the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, London. The Manor was the target for a major burglary by a professional gang in 2006. The culprits received long prison sentences in 2008.

Stefan Persson, the owner of H&M, also has a main residence on the outskirts of Ramsbury. He also owns the Ramsbury microbrewery which brews Ramsbury Gold bottled beer amongst others. Composer David Fanshawe lived near Ramsbury until his death in July 2010.

Read more about this topic:  Ramsbury

Famous quotes containing the words notable and/or residents:

    In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.
    —For the State of Florida, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)

    In most nineteenth-century cities, both large and small, more than 50 percent—and often up to 75 percent—of the residents in any given year were no longer there ten years later. People born in the twentieth century are much more likely to live near their birthplace than were people born in the nineteenth century.
    Stephanie Coontz (20th century)