The £15million mansion handed to Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson by the Queen as a wedding gift is finally being rebuilt almost three years after it was razed to the ground by a Kazakh billionaire.
- House near Windsor Castle was given to Prince Andrew by the Queen as a wedding present in 1986
- The Duke and Duchess of York completed new SouthYork mansion in 1990 but by 1996 they had divorced
- Duchess and children Beatrice and Eugenie stayed for another decade until it was bought for £15m in 2007
- Kazakh oligarch Timur Kulibayev paid £3m over the £12m asking price despite being on market for five years
Sunninghill Park finally demolished in 2015 and billionaire Kazakh creating manor third bigger than originalSunninghill Park in Berkshire was the Duke and Duchess of York's dream home but it would later crumble like their own marriage.
The Queen had the original house built for them as a present for their 1986 wedding and it was nicknamed SouthYork because it resembled Southfork, the ranch-house in TV’s Dallas, when it was completed in 1990.
Prince Andrew moved out of their 12-bedroom property after their 1996 divorce but Fergie, Beatrice and Eugenie stayed at the house close to Windsor Castle for another decade.
Kazakh businessman Timur Kulibayev then paid Andrew £3million over his £12million asking price in 2007 despite the grand home being on the market for five years.
Mr Kulibayev, a billionaire oil magnate and the son-in-law of the Kazakh President, left Sunninghill Park untouched and decrepit until 2015 when he finally demolished it.
He has now started again to create his own 'manor house' over a third larger than the original.
This is the new mansion being built by a Kazakh billionaire who bought Prince Andrew's marital home and razed it to the ground
The property near Ascot is within a walled plot with fields around it also believed to have been included in the sale for security reasons
Nicknamed SouthYork because it resembled Southfork, the ranch-house in TV’s Dallas, the mansion completed in 1990 was left to rot much to the ire of locals who called it an eyesore
Kazakh businessman Timur Kulibayev paid £3million over the £12m asking price for Prince Andrew's marital home in 2007 despite it being on the market for five years
The Queen gave Andrew and Fergie the land to build on in 1986 when they married, and work started in 1987 (pictured) and took around three years to finish
Two years on new pictures reveal that the new 14-bedroom property is taking shape 31 years after Andrew and Fergie's own marital home was first built.
The current owner, who owns a number of luxury properties in the UK, was granted planning permission to replace the former royal home with a larger house with six bedrooms for family and guests and eight bedrooms for staff.
The new design includes a family living room, drawing room, formal dining room, study and sitting rooms for children and the master suite.
A 25 metre indoor swimming pool to the south of the house to replace the current outdoor pool and the five acre plot has already been re-landscaped and will include a wild woodland area or orchard.
The house it replaced was designed by Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith, who also created a development on the Balmoral estate.
‘SouthYork’ was given to Andrew after his marriage in 1986.
The Duchess of York lived on there with daughters Beatrice and Eugenie following the divorce in 1996, but moved out in 2006 and joined Andrew at his home Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park.
It was sold a year later but has become an expensive ruin and worse it is now being bombarded by noisy Jumbo jets coming in to land at Heathrow after bosses at the airport switched the flight-path for incoming aircraft.
Sunninghill Park was originally part of Windsor Forest until 1630 and the mansion was built in around 1800.
The house was the headquarters of the American Ninth Air Force from November 1943 to September 1944 before it was bought by the royal family Crown Estate and was planned to be given to the Queen and Prince Philip after their wedding in November 1947.
But it was destroyed by a major fire and after Her Majesty became Queen it was untouched until Princess Margaret considered building there.
In 1986 it was sold to the Queen who then gifted it to her son Andrew when he married Sarah Ferguson that year and work started on their 12-bedroom home the following year.
But within ten years their marriage was over and the house abandoned a decade after that.
Many royals were being touted to take the land, including the Queen in 1947, but it would eventually fall to Andrew and Fergie who lived there until their divorce in 1996
The grounds are so vast they could house a merry-go-round and dodgems, pictured her on Princess Beatrice's eighth birthday party in 1996
After the Duke and Duchess of York's divorce the property fell into ruin and lay empty after 2006 (pictured here in 2009)
In October 2015 the house was finally demolished - eight years after it was sold and nine years after the Duchess of York moved out
The oligarch has now started again to create his own 'manor house' over a third larger than the original built by Andrew
Last year the Mail revealed Prince Andrew was far more involved in the £15 million sale of Sunninghill Park to Timur Kulibayev than previously admitted.
Leaked emails also revealed that his staff went to great lengths to ensure the 2007 deal went through.
The Duke’s then aide, Amanda Thirsk, discussed interior design and security arrangements with the wealthy Kazakhs.
She even tried to secure a deal for oligarch Mr Kulibayev to lease two fields next to the mansion from the Crown Estate for a ‘peppercorn rent’.
The emails also revealed an extraordinary attempt by Andrew to arrange for Coutts, the Queen’s bank, to take Kulibayev on as a client.
www.mailonsunday.co.uk, 21 July 2018
