A pub landlady who inherited killer farmer Tony Martin’s £2.5million fortune has unveiled plans to convert his barns into 10 new homes.
Jacqueline Wadsley, now 52, became friends with Mr Martin – who shot dead a teenage burglar at his remote farmhouse in 1999 – while he was drinking in her pub in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire following his release from prison in 2003.
The pair were said to have formed ‘a father and daughter’ style relationship and Ms Wadsley was named the sole beneficiary in the killer’s will, although she claims to have known nothing about the huge inheritance until he died last February aged 80.
The landlady and her husband David, 45, have now applied to convert five run down barns on Mr Martin’s land at Bleak House Farm in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk into 10 homes.
Plans submitted to King’s Lynn and West Norfolk Council describe the barns as ‘functional agricultural buildings and modest in appearance’.
Permitted development rights allow agricultural buildings to be turned into homes without full planning permission.
Two of the outbuildings are steel-framed and the others are built from brick with metal cladding roofs.
They lie just yards from Bleak House, where Mr Martin shot dead Fred Barras, 16, and injured accomplice Brendan Fearon, then aged 29.
Jacqueline Wadsley, pictured, inherited killer farmer Tony Martin’s £2.5million fortune and has now unveiled plans to convert his barns into 10 new homes
Mr Martin is pictured outside his farmhouse called Bleak House in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, shortly after his release from prison in August 2003
Pictured: Four of the five barns included in the conversion plans, along with a dilapidated cottage, far right, not included in the proposal
Mr Martin opened fire with an unlicensed pump action shotgun from his stairs after being woken up by the pair breaking in to try and steal antiques.
He was jailed for life in April 2000 after being convicted of murder and wounding at Norwich Crown Court, but his sentence was reduced on appeal to five years for manslaughter.
The case sparked a national debate about the rights of land owners to protect themselves and their property from intruders.
Mr Martin never returned to Bleak House following his release from Highpoint Prison, Suffolk, in 2003, often preferring to sleep in his car parked in one of his barns.
When interviewed after his release from jail, Mr Martin always insisted those who broke into other people’s properties deserved all they got.
Speaking in 2019, he said: ‘What happened to me is important to every man, woman and child in this country – not just to me.’
And two years ago Martin insisted he ‘doesn’t regret anything’ relating to the events of August 20 1999, adding: ‘You may think I’ve got a chip on my shoulder but I’m bound to.
‘I haven’t met anybody who says I was wrong. I don’t think people appreciate what happened. I’ve been naive, I’m too honest for my own good and I don’t like dishonesty.
‘I would like to appeal but you can’t because you need fresh evidence. My idea of fresh evidence and their idea are different.
‘I’d love to clear my name before I die but it may never happen. The law won’t allow it.’
Martin died on February 2, 2025, confirmed by a family friend who said he had suffered a stroke a few months earlier.
Pictured: The five barns – each containing between one and three proposed homes – circled in red. Bleak House – where Mr Martin killed an intruder in 1999 – is coloured in red, as is a further dilapidated cottage
Mr Wadsley pictured with Ms Wadsley. He said his wife had helped Mr Martin with medical appointments and accommodation
Mrs Wadsley often cooked the killer Sunday lunches while he often did odd jobs for her family to keep busy.
Bleak House – which along with another derelict cottage is not part of the conversion plans – has been boarded up with steel shutters and covered in ivy with part of its roof collapsed since the shooting.
Mr Martin said he was ‘too old’ to consider restoring the once-grand property, originally known as Cow Croft Field Farm, which he was left by an uncle in 1993.
He stated in 2022 that he would be leaving his farm to someone, but declined to say who.
The planning statement for the project to convert the barns states: ‘The barns are arranged in clusters across the site and are set within areas of hardstanding and grassland, surrounded by mature trees and open fields.’
It adds the appearance of the barns will be largely the same following conversion which will involve upgrading walls, roofs, doors and installing doors and windows to make them into homes.
Probate records revealed last month that his estate in the UK, which included his 350 acre farm, was worth £2,573,973, reduced after payment of liabilities to a net figure of £2,567,795.
His entire estate after funeral and legal expenses was left in trust to Mrs Wadsley but did not include any property that he may have had overseas.
Mr Martin was rumoured at the time of his death to own some property in Australia.
After Mr Martin’s will was revealed, Mr Wadsley said his wife had helped the farmer with medical appointments and accommodation and was ‘there at all hours of the day’ when he needed assistance in his final years.
