A PUBLIC spirited billionaire estate owner has helped villagers in Axford get super-fast broadband, after he told workers on his estate to dig a trench which has allowed engineers to spend the week laying cables in the village.

Villagers approached BT Openreach, the provider of super fast broadband, after Axford was left off plans to connect the area to high speed internet. BT said the work would come at a cost of £170,000.

So Ramsbury Estate owner billionaire Stefan Persson, whose father founded clothing giant H&M in the 1940s, gave his estate staff the green light to dig a three kilometre trench along his land to speed up the process and put an end to slow internet hampering his business and life for all the villagers. Their work has slashed the cost of the project by £90,000.

The team from Ramsbury Estate worked alongside villagers to dig the trench,and BT technicians have spent the last four days putting in wires, cable and poles.

Estate manager Alistair Ewing said: “Hopefully it will be worth it when I switch on my computer and it doesn’t take 10 minutes to load. I am hopeful that within the next two-three weeks we may see more progress, but that is if they do not have any problems or issues like storms.”

Around 200 similar projects, in which communities carry out preparation work, have already taken place across the country.

Although the village has not yet been given a final date, Jason Mann, from BT Openreach, confirmed that significant progress has been made in the last week.

Mr Mann said: “We are making good progress with the project and are committed to making this exciting technology available to the village as quickly as possible. About two and a half km of new fibre optic cabling has already been installed, but a substantial amount of work remains to be done, including laying three km of cabling and the installation of new poles.”