The murder mystery at a Kent stately home

A gruesome double murder at a stately home continues to intrigue today.

In 1813 wealthy merchant Thomson Bonar was found brutally bludgeoned to death with a poker, along with his mortally wounded wife Anne, in their bedroom at Camden Place in Chislehurst, which at the time was in Kent.

Ms Angela Hatton, of the heritage group at the Grade II* listed building that is now Chislehurst Golf Club, says mystery surrounds the "horrific" killing.

"People are very interested in the story," she told Secret Kent. "Everyone likes a good murder too... and this one was particularly bloody."

On 20 May, Mr Bonar went to bed early, but his wife stayed up late and asked a maid to wake her up early.

After the maid found the pair the next morning, their footman Philip Nicholson who had been sent to get medical help in London stopped at a couple of pubs in Old Kent Road on his way back.

Here he was overheard by an old army colleague saying "the bloody deed is done" and seen behaving strangely.

Nicholson was arrested and immediately admitted being the killer, even directing authorities to a bush where he had hidden bloody sheets and clothes.

He did not explain why he committed the murders - only that he had been drinking in the servants' quarters and had woken up with an "overwhelming desire to kill these very good people", said Ms Hatton.

Ms Hatton said an alternative version of events - which the Bonar family of today believe is "probably true" - was a dispute over inheritance.

She believes the Bonars' sons instigated the plot with Nicholson, who served in one of the son's regiment, as they wanted their inheritance "sooner".

Ms Hatton suggested Nicholson might have been promised that his family would be looked after financially "if he kept his mouth shut".

But they never discovered the truth as Nicholson was convicted of the murders and was hung at Penenden Heath, Ms Hatton said.

She says it is believed Nicholson carried his own coffin up to the gallows on the hill as a way to "pay back" his sins.

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