What exactly went wrong for Littlewoods?

The family may not exactly be struggling financially but what made them wealthy, Littlewoods, is certainly limping along, writes Chris Blackhurst

The Littlewoods Pools building, Liverpool, after being ravaged by fire in 2018 (Getty Images)

Clogs to clogs in three generations. It’s the Lancashire saying attributed to manual workers, hence the clogs, who would predict as they saw someone get rich that the family would be returning whence they came, before too long. The fortune would not last beyond the grandchildren.

At first sight, the victory in the High Court this week of Matthew Velarde, grandson of Cecil Moores, co-founder of the Littlewoods pools, mail order and stores group, disproves the caustic, jealous observation. Velarde won the right to an equal share in the substantial estate of his late mother, Patricia, daughter of Cecil.

She died in 2017, aged 86. Patricia had three children and it was claimed only two, Christian and Rebecca, were meant to inherit. Matthew persuaded the judge otherwise and he now receives his third.