Doncaster moguls placed on rich list

Furniture tycoon Lord Kirkham, and construction entrepreneurs Terry Bramall and Irving Weaver are named among the county’s 50 richest people in a list published this week.

Worth £1.1billion, Lord Graham Kirkham is Yorkshire’s third richest person.

The 71-year-old’s rags to riches story began after he left Maltby Grammar school with no qualifications aged 16 to become a furniture salesman. He later set up his own business, Northern Upholstery in a converted billiard hall in Carcroft.

In 1983 Lord Kirkham bought Direct Furniture Supplies (DFS) after the company went bankrupt.

He floated the chain, generating £450million for him and his family before taking the operation private again and later selling it to Advent for £400million.

Lord Kirkham, who had two children with wife Pauline, has a home in Sprotborough and the Grade II listed Cantley Hall.

Doncaster Rovers director Terry Bramall is 10th on the list with a fortune of £450million.

The 73-year-old and his family sold their 73 per cent share in Doncaster construction company Keepmoat when it was sold to its management for £783million in 2007.

A staunch Rovers supporter, Mr Bramall, of Harrogate, joined the board in 2006 and became a controlling shareholder the following year with fellow Keepmoat director Dick Watson.

Worth an estimated £145million, Irving Weaver and his family have come 41st on this year’s rich list.

Mr Weaver and his family own the Doncaster-based construction company Strata Homes. The firm was founded by Mr Weaver’s bricklaying grandfather Oscar Weaver in Mexborough.

It built 2,500 across the North before the Second World War. Mr Weaver took over the company as managing director in 1977 at the age of 28.