In 1880, he was given the original farmhouse estate of Headley Court, formerly the main manor of the village, and its remaining , by his father, on the condition that he would make a career in banking, rather than become a farmer. L He redeveloped it in 1898. The family fortune had been made by his grandfather, James Cunliffe, with his development of the North Eastern Railway (UK). He had the new house built in 1898 by Edward Prioleau Warren. He employed Lawrence Turner for the ceilings and plasterwork.