St. Modwen 30 Years : A Generation of Regeneration 1 | Page 46

First edition of the Clarke Courier

ST. MODWEN | A GENERATION OF REGENERATION | SIR STANLEY CLARKE

“

Standards are very
important. Integrity
has to be top of the
list with clients. An
Englishman’s word
is his bond.

Anthony Glossop told Property Week at the
time of Sir Stanley’s death: 
“Time and again he could inspire ordinary
people to achieve extraordinary results
through his guidance and leadership. In all
his businesses he was committed to building
a team that could carry on where he had to
leave off.”
The property crash of the early 1990s,
brought a confrontation with the banks, in
Sir Stanley’s words: “Everyone was running
scared, and the banks got after us. They said
we’ve got to close offices, got to do a rights
issue ... I was so cross, I stood up to my full
height ... and I took my fist ... and I banged
it down on the table. That’s when we started

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the policy of using the rent roll to cover all
dividends. They could never understand
what we were doing, those City boys.”
Sir Stanley found the time to expand his
racing interests, starting with the purchase of
Uttoxeter racecourse and in Northern Racing
building up a portfolio of eight racecourses,
before reversing into Chepstow Racecourse,
which was then listed on the Alternative
Investment Market in 2003.
In Who’s Who, Sir Stanley’s recreations were
listed as horse racing and breeding race
horses. A modest description for man who
owned the 1997 Grand National winner Lord
Gyllene and Cheltenham Festival winners
Rolling Ball and Barton.

Peter Hardy, the Warburg managing director
who identified Redman Heenan as a likely
vehicle for St. Modwen’s float, remembers
Sir Stanley fondly. “He was somebody you
could trust. He was totally reliable and a very
sound thinker of strategy. Once he had made
up his mind to do something he really got on
with it. He was a true entrepreneur. Having
found a deal he would identify all sorts of
property angles in it – things that other
people couldn’t be bothered with.”

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