Who Owns Longleat?

Longleat is held in trust, and the register names trustees rather than the family. Companies House lists three people with significant control of Longleat Enterprises Limited — none of them the Marquess of Bath. One entry uses the wording “with control over the trustees of a trust”, which is how the register records someone who can direct trustees rather than own shares outright. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns Longleat today?

The visitor business is LONGLEAT ENTERPRISES LIMITED (00789512), incorporated 27 January 1964 — three years before the safari park opened, and the year the estate’s commercial operations were formalised.

Its three active people with significant control are:

• Mr Harry Westropp — ownership of shares, 75% or more, with control over the trustees of a trust, notified 25 June 2018
• Mr James Felton Somers Hervey-Bathurst — 75% or more, notified 24 May 2016
• Mr Albemarle John Cator — 75% or more, notified 6 April 2016

Three people each recorded at 75% or more does not mean 225%. Where shares are held by trustees, PSC rules require each to be registered as though holding the whole — the same convention that names nine Westons on Wittington and both Resnicks on Fiji Water elsewhere on this site.

Ultimate parent and corporate structure

There is no parent company. The estate sits under family trusts, with a group of companies beneath them covering the visitor attraction, property, investment and hospitality operations — Longleat Estate Holdings, Longleat Property, Longleat Investment Co and others.

The Thynn family, Marquesses of Bath, have held Longleat since the house was built in the sixteenth century, and the current Marquess and his family are the beneficiaries. But the register does not name them, because they are not the registered holders: trustees are.

That is the substantive answer to who owns Longleat. A great estate of this age is almost never owned by an individual outright — it is held in trust arrangements designed to pass it between generations without triggering a sale, the same logic seen on this site’s Chatsworth page, where a charity holds the house.

Major shareholders or controlling persons

The three named individuals are professional and family trustees rather than proprietors in the ordinary sense. Hervey-Bathurst is himself associated with another historic estate, and trustees of this kind are commonly drawn from that world.

Three entries have ceased, and the dates tell their own story of trustee rotation: Mr Timothy Roger William Moore ceased 31 December 2016, Lord Alastair John Margadale ceased 25 June 2018 — the day Westropp was notified — and Mr Simon Franks ceased 31 December 2024.

Trustees changing is not a change of ownership. The beneficial interest stays with the family throughout; only the people administering it move.

Official records and evidence

Companies House establishes the corporate structure and names the trustees, which is more than many estates disclose.

What it does not establish is the trust itself. Trust deeds are private, and the beneficiaries, the terms and the distribution of interests are not filed anywhere public. The register tells you that a trust exists and who can direct it; it cannot tell you who benefits.

For the land and buildings, the record is HM Land Registry, and this page has not inspected the title. As on the Traitors’ Castle and Chatsworth pages, a company registered at an estate is not proof that the company holds the title.

Ownership history and changes

Longleat House was completed in the 1580s for Sir John Thynne and has passed down the same family since — one of the longest continuous associations between a family and a house in England.

The commercial history is more recent and was a matter of necessity. The 6th Marquess opened the house to the public in 1949, among the first stately homes to do so, to meet the costs of maintaining it. In 1966 the safari park opened, in partnership with Jimmy Chipperfield — the first drive-through safari park outside Africa, and a decision that was widely mocked at the time.

Those two decisions are why Longleat still belongs to the family. Estates that did not find a commercial use in that period were frequently broken up, sold or handed to the state in lieu of tax.

Related companies and brands

The group operates Longleat House and Safari Park, holiday and hospitality businesses, and property and investment companies. It has run Cheddar Gorge among its attractions.

Longleat is not a National Trust or English Heritage property — it is privately held and receives no core public funding, in common with Chatsworth and unlike many houses of comparable size. Several dissolved Longleat-named companies remain on the register from earlier ventures, so matching by name alone will return businesses that no longer trade.