Wentworth Woodhouse Stately Home Sold For Austen-tatious £8m To Hong Kong Firm

Britain’s biggest private home and an inspiration to Jane Austen has been sold for about £8 million.

Wentworth Woodhouse, near Rotherham in South Yorkshire, has five miles of corridors and is twice as wide as Buckingham Palace.

It was once owned by the Fourth Earl Fitzwilliam, said to be the inspiration for Mr Darcy in Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice.

The 606ft-wide mansion is 150 times the size of the average UK home and has about 350 rooms.

It been purchased by the Lake House Group, an investment company with its headquarters in Hong Kong.

One of the rooms is a 60ft by 60ft marble saloon once dubbed the finest Georgian room in England.

The 18th century mansion was put on the market in May by estate agents Savills for £8 million.

A spokesman for Lake House Group said: “We are delighted to be involved with the purchase of Wentworth Woodhouse.

“It is our hope that we can work with some of the organisations which have also shown an interest in the property in order to save and preserve this magnificent historic house.”

The property was bought in 1999 by architect Clifford Newbold, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 88.

An estimated £40 million worth of spending is needed to repair structural damage and other issues.

Before the sale, Savills’ Crispin Holborow said: “Homes with this level of history and grandeur don’t come up for sale.

“I’ve not sold a bigger house and I am not sure there is one. You can’t look in every room, but once you have seen a few rooms you have seen enough.

“If many people were to draw their dream house, they would draw Wentworth Woodhouse - it is the dream home.”

(Pictures: South West News Service)