F

or many people, this place is synonymous with legendary rock concerts – anyone remember when Oasis played their two mammoth shows here in 1996?

Or how about Led Zeppelin in ’79. Aside from all that, however, it's also one of the nation’s grandest stately houses.

In Victorian times it was home to the novelist, Edward Bulwer Lytton (he who coined the phrase ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’), and the Lytton family still live here today – the latest in a long line stretching back to 1490.

It may have hosted illustrious guests like Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill – and er, Noel Gallagher – over the years, but Knebworth has also become a star in its own gothic right, making cameo appearances in various blockbluster from Batman to Harry Potter.

The Victorian turrets and gargoyles conceal an interior that dates back to Tudor times, and every generation of the Lyttons have left their mark. The beautiful gardens were simplified from the Victorian design by Sir Edwin Lutyens – but what he’d make of the 72 life-sized dinosaurs dotted about in the rhododendron beds is anyone’s guess.

From rock legends or royalty, Knebworth really does have something for everyone.