The loveliest castle

When American newspaper tycoon Randolph Hearst decided he wanted to buy an English castle, he sent a telegraph to his agent: “Want buy a castle in England. Please find which ones available.” Leeds Castle in Kent had just gone up for sale and his agent duly looked round, before sending back a dismal report: “Not a bath in place only lighting oil lamps and servants quarters down dungeon.” This was enough to scare off the luxury-loving Hearst, but The Hon Olive Wilson-Filmer, an Anglo-American heiress, glimpsed beauty in the decaying rooms and overgrown grounds, and snapped up the castle in 1926 for £180,000.

Decrepit it may have been, but it was a real royal castle, historic home of kings and queens, surrounded by a moat