Turkey tycoon Bernard Matthews died yesterday, his company said.

The 80-year-old became a legend in his own language with his pronunciation of the word ''beautiful'' in a series of 1980s television commercials.

He offered the masses cheap turkey meat - and a taste of the Norfolk dialect.

From humble beginnings Matthews built a vast poultry company, made a huge fortune and was honoured by the Queen for his charity work.

But he failed to impress animal welfare campaigners. They criticised his ''factory farming'' methods and complained that the birds suffered.

And in 2005 - a quarter of a century after he first described his produce as ''bootiful'' - there was a further twist in the tale.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver launched a crusade to improve school dinners. And it was a Matthews product - Turkey Twizzlers - he wanted off plates first.

Twizzlers became infamous and in the wake of Oliver's onslaught production fizzled out - causing Matthews' operating profits to fall.

There were more grim headlines in 2006 when an animal welfare group called for an inquiry after a court heard how two Bernard Matthews' workers were filmed playing ''baseball'' with live turkeys.

Both men admitted ill-treating birds at a Bernard Matthews unit in Haveringland, Norfolk, during a hearing before magistrates in Norwich.

Their lawyer told the court that the men were influenced by ''peer pressure'' at the factory and were part of a ''culture'' of behaviour.

A few days later the firm tried to restore its reputation with a full-page newspaper advertisement telling shoppers that its employees were ''conscientious people''.

But there was more bad news in February 2007 when the H5N1 strain of bird flu surfaced in the UK for the first time - at a Bernard Matthews' plant at Holton, Suffolk. Nearly 160,000 birds were slaughtered and sales slumped.

Matthews, the son of a mechanic, was born in Brooke, Norfolk, in 1930 and left school at 16.

He began his rise to prominence in 1950 when he bought 20 turkey eggs and an incubator at a market in Acle, Norfolk.

By 1952 he was producing 3,000 turkey eggs at his home and decided to leave his insurance job and move into poultry farming full-time.

Three years later he bought Great Witchingham Hall, near Norwich - a derelict mansion with 36 acres of land. It remains the headquarters of the Bernard Matthews company.