Among many other historical events, Chastleton House in Oxfordshire is considered to be the birthplace of the official rules of competitive croquet, a game previously known as pall-mall (or paille-maille, from the Latin for ball and mallet). Chastleton’s pioneering owner Walter Whitmore-Jones was known for his imaginative games and get-rich-quick schemes, but in 1866 was credited with ‘transforming the silliest of open-air games into the most intellectual’. This striking shade is in fact the original colour of one of Walter’s preserved croquet balls.