British Heritage
Travel
“Ugly” was Darwin’s word for Down House in a letter to his sister in July 1842, and he lived there forty years, wrote On the Origin of Species and used the gardens as an open-air laboratory until his death in 1882
Sissinghurst was a run-down Elizabethan mansion with farm workers’ housing, vegetables and hop gardens when Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson bought it in early 1930, and by the late 1930s its garden was open to the public for a shilling 
History “An earthly paradise” was T.E. Lawrence’s phrase for Clouds Hill, the 1808 Dorset cottage he bought with five acres for £450 in 1929 and the only house he ever owned, and the National Trust reopens it from 27 March 2027
Shut for winter, the Dorset cottage T.E. Lawrence called an earthly paradise and bought with five acres for £450 in 1929 reopens from 27 March 2027.
Royals
In 1985, Princess Diana danced with John Travolta at the White House in a gown by the London designer Victor Edelstein. 34 years later, Historic Royal Palaces bought the dress for £264,000
In 1980, the Duchy of Cornwall bought Highgrove, a Georgian house near Tetbury, as a country home for Prince Charles. Since he became king the Duchy has passed to his son, and Charles now pays rent to live in the house he spent more than 40 years gardening The latest
HistoryThe Tower House at 29 Melbury Road in Holland Park was William Burges’s own Gothic Revival home, built between 1875 and 1881, and Jimmy Page reportedly paid Richard Harris £350,000 for it in 1972William Burges built the Tower House in Holland Park for himself in 1875-81; Jimmy Page reportedly paid Richard Harris £350,000 for the Grade I house.
HistoryKeith Richards bought Grade II 16th-century Redlands for a reported £20,000 in 1966; raided 12 February 1967, charges followed laterRedlands, the Grade II listed thatched house Keith Richards bought in 1966, was raided by 18 officers on 12 February 1967, and charges followed later.
HistoryA gold thrymsa believed to date from around AD 625 has divided specialists, and Norfolk area coroner Johanna Thompson has delayed her treasure determination, saying she does not want to rush itSpecialists disagree over a gold thrymsa found in Norfolk, and the area coroner has delayed her treasure ruling, saying she does not want to rush it.
HistoryIn 1894, John Barbour began supplying oilskins in South Shields to sailors facing the North Sea. 132 years later, his family still leads the company, which holds a royal warrant from the King
HistoryIn 1856, an American entrepreneur opened a rubber factory in an Edinburgh mill. During the First World War it made 1,185,036 pairs of boots for the Army. Today the brand is known as Hunter
HistoryIn 1918, Milton Hershey quietly signed over his entire stake in the Hershey Chocolate Company, worth $60 million, to a school for orphan boys he had founded with his wife; that gift now funds a school trust worth more than $15 billion