Rarely seen without his flat cap, Trevor Hemmings is the archetypal self-made tycoon.

He made his billion by appreciating what the common man enjoys. His empire includes the rights to Basil Brush and Postman Pat, a large chunk of Preston North End football club, Blackpool Tower and a pools business. He twice bought Pontin’s and brought Center Parcs to Britain.

He keeps himself, as they say in Lancashire, to himself. At the last count, he had given three interviews in his 73 years – two for the Racing Postand one for the Leyland Guardian.

According to The Sunday Times Rich List, he is the 70th richest Briton with a fortune of more than £1 billion.

“I have competed every day of my life,” he told the Racing Post in 2001. “I started out with nothing and now have 7,000 people working for our various enterprises.”

Mr Hemmings was born in London but moved north when his father went to work at the Royal Ordnance factory in Chorley in 1940. “The local greengrocer had a horse and cart and, when I was about 12, I used to take them to Preston to collect goods for him,” he told the Racing Post in 2003.

After an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, he went into building and won the contract to build Pontin’s in Southport in 1971. Today he has a fleet of vintage Rolls-Royces and spends much of his time on private aircraft flying between his homes in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Ireland, and his work-place in Lancashire. His horse, Hedgehunter, won the 2005 Grand National.

If he ever had any political leanings, nobody seems to have noticed.

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