TV star leaves fortune to his PA

Staffordshire naturalist and TV presenter Phil Drabble has left most of his £1 million fortune to his personal assistant.

The One Man and His Dog presenter and ex-Express & Star columnist died at his home in Abbots Bromley last July.

He became a Sunday evening institution as the presenter of the BBC2 cult sheepdog trial programme from 1976 to 1993. Now his personal assistant, Ruth Froggatt, has inherited the bulk of his £1,013,523 estate.

She has moved into his former home, a Victorian folly called Goat Lodge, and is running the 90-acre woodland nature reserve he created there.

Ninety-three-year-old Mr Drabble and his wife Jessie, who died 18 months before him, had no children but grew fond of Mrs Froggatt, their personal assistant for 25 years. It is believed Mr Drabble regarded her as the "daughter he never had".

Married mother-of-two Mrs Froggatt, aged 41, said she knew the Drabbles from when she was a young girl as they were friends of her parents.

"I really grew up with them and considered them part of the family," she said.

"As their personal assistant, I worked full-time for them, helping to run their home, doing their accounts, acting as a chauffeur and helping to cook when they had guests," she added.

Her late father, Gerald Springthorpe, used to be wildlife adviser to the Forestry Commission and he helped his friend Mr Drabble design Goat Lodge nature reserve.

Mrs Froggatt said: "I lost my father three months after Phil died last year so, in a way, coming here is also like a gift from him.

"This place is something he gave and helped design. It is incredible to be living here, really," added Mrs Froggatt.

She added that she intended to continue Mr Drabble's conservation efforts on the site. Mr Drabble, awarded the OBE for services to broadcasting, wrote almost 20 books and penned a Saturday column in the Express & Star for many years.

The nature reserve he created next to his home has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest. He and his wife turned down a number of offers for their land from developers and successfully fought off Center Parcs, which wanted to build a holiday village near their boundary in 1988.

Mr Drabble became the first president of Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, which is based in Wolseley Bridge, in 1969 and, long after he retired, was still promoting and supporting the charity and its activities.

Born in Bloxwich, he was brought up as an only child by his GP father after his mother died. He worked in a factory before rising to become a member of the board of the Midland Engineering Employers Association. He made his first radio broadcast in 1947 and TV debut five years later.