Here, our Brentwood history columnist Sylvia Kent takes a look at the fascinating origins of an impressive Brentwood mansion and the life of its occupiers.

Great Warley village is not very large, but nevertheless very pretty, boasting several interesting listed buildings in beautiful parkland.

I’ve been lucky enough to study and photograph many of these homes as part of ongoing history projects.

One mansion to the north of the village that left a lasting impression was Boyles Court, an impressive red-brick mansion designed and constructed in 1776 by Thomas Leverton.

In his book Warley Magna to Great Warley, the author George Harper wrote: "Boyles Court, an imposing mansion which stands on the site of the manor house of Bowells, hence the corruption to Boyles.

"It was sometimes called Cooke-a-Bowells, reputedly the estate held by Robert Gernon centuries earlier.

"In 1788 the Roman Catholic Lescher family - wool merchants for generations in Alsace - arrived in England.

"Count Joseph Samuel Lescher and his descendents prospered and for some time occupied the beautiful Hutton Hall.

"Boyles Court was said to have come into Count Lescher’s possession when it was taken as a bad debt in 1801."

The last Lescher to live in Boyles Court was Joseph, the son of Count Joseph, who apparently was Baron of the Old Kingdom of France by grant of Louis Xlll and hereditary Count of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1885 he held the post of High Sheriff in Essex and was Justice of the Peace in Essex, Middlesex and London.

A devout Roman Catholic, two of his sisters were nuns and, along with his famous horticulturist neighbour Ellen Willmott (whom he disliked intensely), he donated considerable funds to Brentwood Catholic churches and schools.

Villagers remembered him wearing long flowing black robes when out walking.

His wife, Countess Lescher, adored gardening and the grounds of Boyles Court were described as magnificent.

But his life wasn’t all about religion and wealth. Romance reared its head when one of the count’s two daughters was found to be having an affair with one of her father’s gardeners.

In such a complex situation, the revelation was unbelievable and the young couple’s love affair seemed doomed.

However, against her parents’ wishes, they married and went on to live happily in Chelmsford. The remaining sister entered a nunnery.

Count Lescher died in 1923 and the whole Boyles Court estate was bought by the wealthy landowner/squire Evelyn Heseltine.

Boyles Court attracted other occupiers in the following years including the wife of Lord Bertrand Russell, Dora, who opened an unsuccessful "progressive school".

In 1950, Boyles Court was bought by Essex County Council, its parkland required for housing.

The mansion was used as a young persons’ remand home which closed its doors in 2014. Thereafter, huge restoration work began and the building, which was renamed Leverton Hall, is now luxurious private apartments.

George Harper’s story ends at Brentwood Cathedral where the last of the Lescher family are buried, close to the remains of Ellen Willmott interred in 1934.

More stories can be found in Brentwood in 50 Buildings published by Amberley Books.