The seventh Duke of Westminster, Hugh Grosvenor, is the wealthiest man in the North West.
With a net wealth of £10.054bn, according to the Sunday Times, he and his family rank as the 12th richest in the UK.
The baby-faced duke inherited the extraordinary fortune when his father Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor passed away in 2016.
Most of the Grosvenor family's wealth comes from 300 acres of land and property in Belgravia and Mayfair.
But how much do you know about the duke and his family, whose history can be traced back to the time of William the Conqueror?
Below, BusinessLive lifts the lid on the influential duke and his interests across the country.
Heritage
The Grosvenor family ancestry can be traced back almost 1,000 years to the time of William the Conqueror.
In the following 600 years, the family grew its landholdings, finances and status, establishing a home in Eaton, Cheshire, in the early 1440s; investing in coal, stone and lead mines in the 1580s in Denbighshire and Flintshire.
The family's association with London property began more than 340 years ago and helped the development of Mayfair in the 1720s, Belgravia a hundred years later, and expanded internationally from the 1950s onwards.
Farming has taken place on the estate since the 1400s, according to the family's website, while they run Grosvenor Farms in Cheshire.
The family claims descent from Gilbert le Grosveneur, nephew of Hugh d’Avranches, more commonly known as Hugh Lupus, the first of the Norman earls of Chester appointed by William the Conqueror, Hugh’s uncle.
In c.1160, land at Little Budworth, Cheshire, was granted to Robert Grosvenor while Richard Grosvenor accompanied Kind Richard I on his crusade to the Holy Land.
In 1234 more land was granted to Richard Grosvenor in Hulme, Cheshire.
In c.1443, Raufe Grosvenor married the heiress Joan of Eton (later Eaton) and Eaton became the family home of the Grosvenors.
In 1634, Sir Richard Grosvenor, Second Baronet, acquired the freehold of mines and minerals in North Wales, an extremely valuable source of income.
During the Civil War from 1642 to 1647, the family supported Kind Charles I. Their estates were taken away and they had to pay a fine to reclaim them.
In 1704 t e Grosvenors’ Welsh lead mines were leased to the London Lead Company and the income made possible further development of the Grosvenor Estate in London.
During the 1720s, Sir Richard Grosvenor, Fourth Baronet, Sir Thomas Grosvenor, Fifth Baronet, Sir Robert Grosvenor, Sixth Baronet, helped develop the Mayfair estate.
In 1825 the development of Belgravia started while in 1831 Robert Grosvenor was created the First Marquess of Westminster.
In 1874, Hugh Lupus was created First Duke of Westminster.
The Grosvenor Estate
The Grosvenor Estate encompasses all the activities of the Grosvenor family.
Its purpose is for our activities to "deliver lasting commercial and social benefit, contributing to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the communities we are part of", the family website states.
The estate has three constituent parts:
- Grosvenor Group, one of the largest privately-owned international property companies developing, managing and investing in property in more than 60 cities around the world. Among its many assets are the Liverpool ONE shopping centre and Grosvenor Square in London while it also has other sites in Paris, Hong Kong, Madrid, Washington DC, Vancouver, Tokyo, Stockholm, Shanghai, San Francisco and Cambridge.
- Wheatsheaf Group, an international investor in food and agriculture businesses. It owns Aerofarms, Agriwebb, Benchmark Holdings, Benson Hill, Bluwrap, Buymie, Enterra, Farmdrop, Grosvenor Farms, Ostara, OZO, Oxbury, Prcisionlife, Purfresh, Shared Impact Farming, Synomics, TemperPack, Trace Genomics and Vytelle.
- The Family Office, this covers the management the Grosvenor family’s rural estates in the United Kingdom and Spain, their philanthropic activities through the Westminster Foundation, Realty Insurances, and other specialist functions largely focused on heritage and conservation.
The seventh Duke of Westminster
Born on January 29, 1991, he was styled as Earl Grosvenor until August 2016 when he inherited the dukedom after his father Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor passed away.
Hugh Grosvenor is the third child and only son of the sixth duke and his wife Natalia.
His sisters include Lady Edwina Grosvenor, a prison reformer and philanthropist.
The then Earl Grosvenor and his sisters were educated at a local state primary school, followed by a small private day school, Mostyn House School, near the family home of Eaton Hall, Cheshire.
He then went to Ellesmere College, Shropshire, from 2000 to 2009.
From 2010 to 2013, he studied countryside management at Newcastle University.
After university, he worked in estate management at Wheatsheaf Investment from 2013 to 2014, and the Grosvenor Group from 2014 to 2015, before becoming accounts manager at Bio-bean, a green energy company, in January 2016.
In October 2013, he was named a godfather to Prince George.
In April 2020, the duke donated million pounds in support of the Government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the NHS.
