A black helicopter flies over a gated country estate, while an army of staff ferries in supplies and contractors carry out ambitious construction projects on a mega-mansion.
No, these are not the opening scenes of a future James Bond blockbuster – but a drama that has currently gripped the locals of a tiny village in Wiltshire.
That’s because Steve Schwarzman, an American billionaire worth an estimated £32 billion, is noisily finishing up his multi-million-pound renovation of Conholt Park – the Grade II listed estate he bought for £82 million three years ago.
This week the tycoon is reported to have agreed to a ban by Southern Water from using tankers to transport gallons of water into a huge new lake he has created in the grounds, despite some locals being subject to a hosepipe ban.
But it’s not just utilities bosses that are raising eyebrows at his audacious plans in rural England.
The 78-year-old tycoon, who is CEO of asset management giant Blackstone, has raised eyebrows with neighbours, and while many locals welcome the renovation of the estate and the business this has brought to the area, others are less pleased, with some blasting his spending as ‘obscene’.
‘I look around me and I think ‘gosh, he now owns this house and this one and this one.’ God knows what he’s doing,’ a villager who has lived in the area for over a decade told the Daily Mail.
‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it – the enormity of that lake he’s created… and to go to that extent to change the estate, it just becomes a bit obscene.
‘And the roads have now been wrecked by the lorries he’s got going through the lanes every day. Yes, he’s given a bit of money to fix the potholes – but that’s small change for him and it’s really the bare minimum he could do.’
The nine million gallon lake (pictured) on Conholt estate which has been filled with tankers of water – whilst some locals in neighbouring Hampshire are on a hosepipe ban
The sprawling 17th century Conholt estate is set on a huge 2,500 acres of rolling land and was bought by the American billionaire for £82 billion in 2022
Steve Schwarzman, 78 (right) pictured with his his wife Christine (left) apparently dreams of creating a grand English country estate in the tradition of 18th century landscape designer Capability Brown
‘I don’t know when it’ll end, it’s been going on a long time,’ she added.
The billionaire has denied claims from nearby residents that he used a borehole to extract groundwater to fill the nine million gallon lake from a shared aquifier used by all the local houses.
A spokesperson for Mr Schwarzman – a financial backer of Donald Trump – told the Mail a small quantity of water taken had recently been used to fill his new lake.
But it had been ‘sourced through licenced providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery’.
And Schwarzman, dubbed ‘the most powerful man on Wall Street’, has not commented on the rumours circulating the village that he will host high profile political guests there for grand shooting weekends – including his close friend US President Donald Trump.
But when the Daily Mail visited Conholt Park, residents claimed the billionaire’s takeover was spreading even further.
They claimed he had bought a farm, cottages for his staff, and even another village nearby.
Sedat Gunes, 56, has lived in the house closest to the estate for 19 years.
He’s worried that the sprawling estate is now a mere ‘hotel’ for Schwarzman’s business guests – and his house will be first under lockdown if any more high profile visitors come to stay.
Mr Gunes said: ‘There are eyes everywhere – and rumours that Trump is going to come here when he visits for shooting weekends.
‘He has a whole entourage when the helicopters fly in for the weekend.
Locals say they are fed up with the huge water tankers going up and down the lanes every day which are ruining the roads and leaving potholes in their wake
Sedat Gunes, 56, has lived in the property closest to Conholt Park estate for 19 years
Locals in the village down the road from Conholt say the billionaire is continuing to expand his project
‘I’m not happy about that because we will literally be locked in the house. And it’s so close to here.’
Sedat had also heard strange stories about the billionaire living opposite him.
‘He comes in with about 30 or 40 suitcases, and I’ve been told by a friend who works in the estate that they all contain the exact same clothes and he just picks one of them.
‘I never see him – I think it’s more of a business property for him to host high profile guests and show off his lake!’
Sedat added: ‘Some of the villagers are NOT happy about it.
‘Some of the lanes have been completely eroded on the sideways, so there’s a lot of potholes.
‘He has fixed some of those. But if he did something positive for our infrastructure in return, I think everyone would be happy because we are prone to flooding.
‘Because a river goes underneath this road and when it rains a lot it goes through this valley. So if he’d done something about that it would’ve been great, everyone would be more secure.’
The mansion is now barely visible from the roadside and is blocked by trees and high fencing
Reece Garner, 38, the landlord at The George Inn – the pub closest to the estate – says the project has been great for business since all the construction workers come to his pub after work
One local said they were upset about the view into the estate being lost and were concerned about the impact of the construction works on wildlife
As well as house prices going up, locals say they have lost a stunning view of the sloping landscapes and 17th century mansion since Schwarzman has planted trees blocking any onlookers from seeing the property from a public road.
A local who has lived in the neighbouring village of Vernham Dean for more than 40 years said: ‘My big regret is that it was a wonderful view over to see the house when you drove by, which is gone now and I regret that.
‘There’s fences everywhere, and I do hope that they’re okay for the animals like the little Muntjak deers who live there.’
She added that water continues to be a problem for the village now, revealing: ‘One does worry about water because we haven’t got a lot of it – it all comes from the Wessex Downs.
‘My friend told me the other day that in order to improve the water in Winchester they’re having to use recycled stuff from Portsmouth – that was a water man who told a friend of mine.’
This morning Southern Water banned tankers from transporting water to fill the billionaire’s lake.
Locals had filmed tankers extracting from standpipes in neighbouring Hampshire and delivering it to the estate day and night – despite a drought order being in place in the county.
Tim McMahon, Southern Water’s managing director, told the BBC he was ‘appalled by this use of water’.
Workers told the Daily Mail they had all signed NDAs and could not speak to the press
Locals say house prices have now skyrocketed and claim that Schwarzman is buying other properties in the village for his ‘staff’
Frustrated locals told the Daily Mail they ‘don’t know when the project will end’ while a spokesperson for Schwarzman said the project is ‘expected to be completed very soon’
The company did not know exactly how much water had been taken but noted that there had been a ‘significant’ spike in the last week.
In a sttatement, representatives for Schwarzman said his construction team was using a ‘highly sophisticated water collection system’ that carried rainfall into the lake.
But one local, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: ‘Come on now. We’re in a chalk area where the inlet is that choked up with chalk and you say it’s coming from rain water?
‘He is buying in water from the tanker load. Hundreds of litres of water. He genuinely is, there’s a lot of water tankers going in there. I see them in Andover filling up.
‘It’s like Stalag Luft up there though – any member of staff, they’re all on NDAs.’
Southern Water, which supplies more than two million customers in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, put both hosepipe ban measures in towards the end of July.
The Daily Mail spotted a black helicopter flying overhead near Steve Schwarzman’s country estate, which locals say he ‘flies in and out of’ for the weekend
The new gates which guard visitors and the public from the 17th century Conholt estate
Neighbours said he has driven property prices in the area through the roof and fear it will now be ‘impossible’ for locals to buy a house where they grew up
A Blackstone spokesperson previously said: ‘The suggestion that the new owners of Conholt Park violated water regulations is false and misleading.
‘They have taken extraordinary care to ensure the restoration of the property complies with all local laws and regulations.
‘Most recently, as construction winds down (expected to be completed very soon) a proportion of transported water has been used in connection with irrigation and the lake.’
It is legal for licenced tankers to take the water from Hampshire because construction work is not domestic and so allowed under current water restrictions.
Schwarzman bought the shooting estate in 2022 from its previous Dutch owners and has been renovating it ever since, including building his lake, which covers three acres – and is in Wiltshire, where there are no drought restrictions.
When the Daily Mail approached construction workers, gardeners, and staff at the property, they said they had all signed lengthy legal documents preventing them from speaking to anyone about the estate.
One worker said: ‘We’ve all had contracts – we can’t say anything at all. Even our boss that lives here, on a house that isn’t part of the estate, isn’t allowed to say anything either.
‘That’s how tight things are here.’
Steve Schwarzman has close political ties with many prominent leaders. He attended a business a roundtable business discussion (right of centre) with Prime Minister Keir Starmer in February this year
Schwarzman (pictured left) met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January last year
Conholt Park is known as being one of England’s finest shooting estates.
Schwarzman’s project blueprint, approved by Wiltshire council last July, involves extending the mansion’s south lawn, adding an extra wing to the mansion, planting hundreds of trees and creating a ‘ha-ha’ (a sunken fence).
Sources close to the tycoon previously said he ‘loves the UK’ and highlighted how he has donated £200million to the University of Oxford.
Some villagers said they were pleased with their new super rich neighbour,explaining he had donated to local charities and the village fete.
Reece Garner, 38, is the pub landlord of The George Inn, just a short drive down the road from Conholt Park.
He said being the closest pub to the estate has brought him good business and said he ‘doesn’t have a bad word to say’ about Schwarzman, who has ‘helped me a lot’.
‘I think it’s great. He’s employing a lot of local people, he’s given a lot of money locally.
‘He’s helped me through the people he’s employing coming here after work.
‘Of course, I don’t ever expect to see him in the pub! I don’t think it’s his cup of tea – I hear he doesn’t drink as he’s teetotal so that’s probably that out of the window!’
Another villager said she was ‘not really bothered’ by the billionaire’s arrival and even praised his hiring of local people to work on the project.
‘It’s brought a lot of work to the place, that’s the thing. I know it’s been a bit of an inconvenience with the traffic and mud and that, but he’s employed a lot of people locally.’
A company spokesperson told the Daily Mail: ‘The new owners of Conholt Park are committed to the restoration and preservation of a landmark estate of national heritage importance.
‘Every aspect of the project is advancing with the highest regard to local laws and planning regulations.
‘This applies to the lake and sophisticated rain water collection system that aggregates runoff from the main house, outbuildings, and nearby paved areas.
‘For the majority of the construction period, until approximately the last three weeks, water purchased and transported to the site by tankers was used principally to support the building works and associated personnel.
‘Most recently, as construction winds down (expected to be completed very soon) a proportion of transported water has been used in connection with irrigation and the lake.
‘The water has been sourced through licenced providers responsible for the lawful and proper extraction and delivery.
‘Water has been sourced from multiple locations, largely outside the region.
‘Following yesterday’s request from Southern Water that water is not directed to the lake, the Estate has readjusted the supply of water accordingly.
‘Southern Water representatives confirmed to us yesterday that commercial tankers servicing the estate are operating entirely within the law.
‘Any suggestion that the owners violated local water regulations would be false and misleading.’
