IPSWICH Town owner Marcus Evans has bought a £9million house in Cornwall - 367 miles away from Portman Road.

Mr Evans has purchased Trewarthenick Estate on the upper reaches of the River Fal, near Tregony, to add to his houses in London and Bermuda.

Dubbed the most expensive country estate in England, Trewarthenick has no public right of way through its grounds, landscaped by Repton, which will suit the secretive Evans who plans to use it as a family home.

The Georgian period house is set in 1,737 acres with 2.5 miles of its frontage along the River Fal which flows through Falmouth and into the English Channel off the coast of south Cornwall.

A spokesman for the Bermuda-based tax exile said: “Mr Evans has bought Trewarthenick for use as a private family home but the work needed on the house and the wider estate is considerable and will take years.

"The plans to restore the estate to its former glory, including reinvesting in the farm businesses, are exciting and ambitious.

"The emphasis is on doing everything sympathetically, and it's good that the plans have been welcomed by such bodies as the National Trust, Wildlife Trust and Georgian Society.

"Mr Evans believes it's also important to use local tradesmen and local firms for the work where possible, and to make sure that the local economy benefits from the restoration."

Listed as 397th in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated wealth of £200m, the entrepreneur recently took over the sponsorship of Ipswich Town which means the name of his business, Marcus Evans Group, will adorn the front of their shirts in the Championship for the next five seasons.

He paid around £12m for 87.5 per cent of the club in January 2007 and bought the debt of £32m for around £6m and has promised further investment to help manger Jim Magilton in his team-building plans.

Although originally from Walsham-le-Willows, near Bury St Edmunds, Evans moved to London as a young boy and was brought up in near Wimbledon.

He now has homes in Bermuda, London and Cornwall, but not Suffolk.