Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire

Charles Jennens converted the hall into a magnificent Georgian mansion, which cost him more than £100,000 (about £15,000,000 in today’s money).

Gopsall Hall

The house still stood in the 20th century, indeed the estate had a motor-racing circuit in the 1920s and ’30s. But by 1952 it was mostly demolished, and the current Gopsall Hall Farm stands on its site – not far from Twycross Zoo.