The former home of racing driver Sir Malcolm Campbell is up for sale with an asking price of £5 million.
Grade II listed Headley Hall house in Epsom, Surrey features a heavily fortified cellar storage which was built by Campbell to display his many racing trophies. He also built a bomb shelter in the home back in 1939 during the war.
Back in the 1950s, the estate was divided into several properties but is now being sold as a whole for the first time in 60 years for £4.95million. The present owners of the home bought the main house and staff wing in 1978 and in 2001, they also acquired the ballroom wing, known as Cleaver House. They decided to sell the estate since it is too big for their family where they live with their children and grandchildren.
Campbell bought the property in 1935 when he broke the world land speed record of being the first person to drive at a speed of 301.337 mph on his Bluebird car at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. In 1924, he broke the record for land speed for the first time at 146.16mph and breaks another nine land speed records between the years 1924 and 1935, South Port Visiter reported.
Two years before his death, Campbell sold the Headley Hall in 1946 and was bought by the Maharajah of Baroda, who is one of India's most powerful princely states and was dubbed as the eighth richest man in the world during that time.
When Pratapsinh Rao Gaekwad brought the estate, he also built a cricket pavilion which was burned down by Canadian engineers during the Second World War. He then sold the estate and divided it into three parts, separating two wings from the main house and dividing the 221 acres of grounds.
Headley Hall was built at the end of the 18th century and after the First World War, the ballroom and staff accommodation wings were added. It features eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, over 10,000 sq ft of living space that has six reception rooms. Outdoors, 43 acres space featuring an outdoor heated swimming pool, paddocks, tennis court, paddocks and woodland, Mail Online reported.
