Inside Dragons’ Den icon Deborah Meaden’s huge countryside mansion with 10 bedrooms, a farmyard of animals
DEBORAH Meaden is known for her savvy business skills as one of the famous panel on Dragons' Den.
But when she's not busy making budding entrepreneurs dreams come true, she enjoys a fabulous life in the country in her 10 bedroom mansion in Somerset.
The property is nestled in Somerset, where Deborah, 64, was born and it boasts a farmyard full of animals.
It was built in stages between 1565 and 1765, when it was bequeathed to William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham by Sir William Pynsent, 2nd Baronet, who did not want the house to go to Lord North.
The TV star and businesswoman and her husband of 30 years, Paul, bought the two story mansion back in 2006 after Deborah sold her Weststar Holidays business £33m.
Since then, the couple have been renovating the property to restore its period features but still update it for modern life.
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Explaining the renovation process, Deborah said: "We have done it up in an ethical way, restoring whatever we can using traditional materials.
"That has cost us at least twice as much as it needed to. I always say: we were lucky to find our home, and it was lucky to find us.
"I do not know anybody in their right mind who would have spent the money on it we have – far more than we will ever get back."
Along with having ten bedrooms, the posh pad boasts four bathrooms and half a dozen reception rooms and offices.
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The Grade II listed building also has a huge kitchen and living room.
Deborah also has plenty of room for her various animals. She had cats and dogs who live with the family, plus a variety of animals living in the beautiful and expansive grounds.
The TV stars keep chickens, has several horses and a paddling of ducks as the properly also has a pond with a jetty.
She also harvests honey from her bees.
Deborah previously admitted that she has so many animals because she knows she can "give them a good life."
The property is something of farm as the couple are believed to own two cats, three dogs, six horses, three pigs, five sheep, 10 chickens, six ducks and three geese.
Deborah is a businesswoman who joined Dragons' Den in 2003.
Born in Somerset, Deborah grew up in Essex before moving back to the West Country.
Through the 90s she owned Weststar Holidays and once that had been sold, acquired Fox Brothers, a textile mill, in 2009.
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In 2011 she launched The Merchant Fox, a website selling luxury British-made goods.
She has a reported net worth of around £50 million, making her the richest Dragon's Den star.
