By
Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 8:00 PM on 13th August 2011

Britain’s most expensive home – a 300-year-old country house in Oxfordshire – has been sold to an unidentified Russian buyer for about £140million.

Park Place, a Grade II-listed property set in hundreds of acres of land, backs on to the Thames near Henley.

The record sale includes around 200 acres of Grade II-registered parkland, listed monuments, houses, cottages, stables and a boat house, according to the Financial Times.

Hefty price tag: Park Place in Henley has just been sold for £140m to an unidentified buyer

It also has two golf courses, ten tenanted cottages and another eight in need of renovation. The home boasts 27 bedrooms.

Its £140million price tag makes Park Place Britain’s most expensive home, knocking One Hyde Park, Knightsbridge, London, off the top spot, which was sold for £136million earlier this year.

This is the latest sale of a trophy residence across south-east England to wealthy overseas buyers.

The trend shows no sign of abating, despite the economic downturn and stagnation in other areas of the housing market.

One Hyde Park London: The UK’s most expensive address at £136million, until this week when Park Place was sold for £140million

Such ‘super-prime’ properties remain attractive to investors overseas, particularly those from less stable economies in southern and eastern Europe, say experts.

The property was sold by developer Michael Spink in an off-market deal. He had bought the home for about £40million in 2007. Even then it was the highest sum paid for a home outside the capital.

At that time it was in a dilapidated state, with peeling front doors, empty grand rooms and rusty fire escapes.

Mr Spink went on to spend around £100million on the restoration and reconstruction of the Franco-Italianate mansion and estate.

He is also currently developing a second 300-acre phase of the estate, which was not included in the sale.

The property has had a string of interesting owners, who have all left their mark.

Its second owner was Frederick Prince of Wales, the eldest son of George II.

Ostracised from his father’s court, the prince loved spending time at Park Place. His children, including the future George III, spent many years of their childhood there.

However, the prince died before the King at the age of 44. His widow, princess Augusta, decided to move and sold the property to General Conway.

Prince’s playground: The property once belonged to Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707 -1751), the eldest son of George II. Frederick would have been king had he not died before his father

The property boasts a series of large
caves underneath the estate, built by the General at the time of the French Revolution. These lead into a chamber that can be
reached through a tunnel and six vaulted openings.

In 1763, Humphrey Gainsborough, brother of the artist Thomas Gainsborough designed Conway’s Bridge on the estate, which still carries traffic today.

Later it was owned by the Earl of Malmesury, whose visitors included the Prince Regent and the Tsar of Russia.

Oddly, the grounds house the spire of St
Bride’s Church in London’s Fleet Street.

Damaged by lightning in the
early 19th century, it was bought by the then owner of Park Place and
erected to mark Queen Victoria’s accession.

More recently, the estate has been owned by Greek Shipping billionaire John Latsis, it has been used as a boarding school, and a consortium tried to turn it into a country club.

The group failed to gain planning permission from Wokingham council in 2007 and it was sold to Mr Spink.

It was also recently used in the remake of the film St Trinians.

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