Wollaton Hall.

Sir Francis Willoughby made money through coal, and had a magnificent mansion built by Robert Smythson over the period 1580-1588. However, things went wrong in his life, and there's a Latin inscription over the South entrance to the hall which states that he was "ambitious but unhappy and without an heir."

A later Sir Francis Willoughby studied at Cambridge in the 1650s and became a famous naturalist and mathematician. His second son, Thomas, was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1695 and of Lincolnshire in 1699, and was MP for Nottinghamshire 1698–1702 and 1705–1710, and for Newark 1710–1711. At that stage he was then elevated to the peerage as Lord Middleton.

Sir Jeffery Wyattville carried out significant repairs and modifications to the Hall in 1801, and in 1925 the 7th Lord Middleton sold it to Nottingham Corporation. Nowadays it's a Grade One Listed building owned by Nottinghamshire City Council, and following further major restoration it now functions as a Natural History and Industrial Museum. See more at: http://www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk/sitemap/leisure_and_culture/museumsandgalleries/wollatonhall.htm

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