Belhus — a Tudor mansion whose north side had been ‘very little altered’ since the reign of Henry VIII — was one of many country house victims of the Second World War. This time in the form of bomb damage and use for firewood.

Belhus sat quietly in the landscape and under the stewardship of the same family until 1919, when it was inherited by the 66-year-old Sir Thomas Barrett-Lennard. Being a gentleman of mature years, Sir Thomas already had his own estates and so, in 1922, it was quietly sold to an investment company.

The following year, the jaw-dropping contents were marketed for sale over eight days, with the Essex Chronicle noting that ‘private Americans are bidding greatly’. Furniture by Chippendale, and portraits by Van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely were sold alongside Chinese porcela

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