A £5million stately home that that used to belong to the British land speed record holder has burned to the ground.
Firefighters were called today to Headley Grove, Headley Hall, in Surrey at around 11am this morning.
They used eight fire engines, one aerial ladder platform and two water carriers to try and put out the blaze at the grade-II listed building.
There has been building work ongoing at the hall over the last 12 months.
Sir Malcolm Campbell bought the estate with his winnings from breaking the world land speed record in 1935, when he became the first person to drive a car at more than 300mph.
The fire service said four fire engines, one aerial ladder platform and a water carrier will remain on site overnight to dampen down hotspots.
Officers said they would start to scale back the operation at 6pm.
The eight-bedroom home has over 10,000 sq ft of living space with six reception rooms and six bathrooms.
Headley Grove was built in the early 19th century. It was built on the site of an older building, with the ballroom and staff accommodation added after World War I.
The sprawling estate was divided into several different properties back in the 1950s – but the entire estate went up for sale together in 2016 for £4.95million.
During Sir Malcolm’s time owning the property, he built a huge bomb shelter when World War II broke out in 1939, as well as installing a heavily fortified trophy cabinet in the main house’s cellar.
Sir Malcolm sold the home in 1946, two years before his death, and it was bought by the Maharajah of Baroda who divided the estate into pieces, with two wings separated from the main house and its 221 acres divided up.
A source told Metro: ‘It’s too early to establish the cause of the fire as the property is still too unsafe to enter, and will need specialist teams to enter.’
It also has about 43 acres with an outdoor heated swimming pool, tennis court, paddocks and woodland.
The current owners bought the main house in 1978, according to the Mail.
Area Commander David Nolan said: ‘We appreciate the public’s cooperation so far and urge everyone to continue avoiding the area.
‘Those nearby should keep their windows and doors closed as we work to fully extinguish any remaining hotspots.’
Between them, Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son, Donald, set 10 speed records on land and 11 on water.
Driving a series of vehicles called Blue Bird, they were the personification of British derring-do and engineering prowess.
Mr Campbell started racing cars in 1910 and in 1912 suffered the first of many near-fatal accidents at the famous Brooklands race track.
This car was christened Blue Bird, after a stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and the name was used for all his subsequent vehicles and those raced by his son, Donald (though Donald used the single word form).
Campbell first broke the land speed record at Pendine Sands, Carmarthenshire, in September 1924.
The following July, on the same course, he became the first man to exceed 150mph.
he late 1920s saw him vying for the record with Sir Henry Segrave. Campbell set a new land speed high of 231.4mph at Daytona, Florida, in February 1931, for which he was knighted.
The ninth, and last, of his land speed records saw Campbell become the first to top 300mph.
This was achieved on the Utah salt flats in September 1935.
Malcolm Campbell next turned his attention to the water speed record, which he broke four times between September 1937 and August 1939 in a Blue Bird hydroplane, on the last occasion reaching 141.74mph on Coniston Water in the Lake District.
Campbell worked for Combined Operations during the Second World War but he later suffered from glaucoma – possibly as a result of his disdain for safety goggles. He died at his Surrey home on New Year’s Eve 1948.
Source: English Heritage
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