Brocket’s chance to reclaim pile as owner goes bust
BROCKET Hall has hosted centuries of scandal and aristocratic high jinks, and boasts two former Prime Ministers among its owners.
Now the country house, one of Britain’s most colourful stately homes, has been put on the market for £10 million after its owners went into administration.
And, in a unexpected twist, there is speculation that it could be bought by its previous owner, insurance fraudster Lord Brocket.
Spread over a sprawling Hertfordshire estate, it includes 46 bedrooms, two golf courses, a tennis court, a croquet lawn and a helipad. The Grade-I listed 18th- century house, where Lord Palmerston reputedly died on the billiard table during a liaison with a chambermaid, is surrounded by 543 acres of parkland and lakes.
The Hall was the home of Lord Brocket until he fell into debt and was jailed in 1996 for committing insurance fraud. He had claimed three vintage Ferraris and a Maserati had been stolen — when he had actually buried them in the grounds.
After being sent to prison, the Old Etonian peer was forced to sell the property on a 60-year lease, though the family still owns the freehold, to German hotelier Dieter Klostermann. It was turned into a hotel, restaurant and conference centre.
Lord Brocket, who appeared on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out of Here!, recently reclaimed about £7 million worth of antiques and paintings after a long-running dispute with the hotelier.
Responding to the news that Klostermann’s company had gone into administration, Lord Brocket commented earlier this month: ‘Of course, the trustees of Brocket Hall would want to marry the lease with the freehold.’
But would Brocket have the ready cash? The usually loquacious peer declined to talk when I called. Perhaps it’s time for him to dig out some more ‘lost’ Ferraris.