When Cassiobury House in Hertfordshire, home to the Earls of Essex for more than 250 years, was dismantled in 1927 much of the masonry was used in the construction of a new house of the same name in Bedford, New York.
After the demolition of Cassiobury House, local posters advertised, ‘To lovers of the antique, architects, builders, etc., 300 tons of old oak: 100 very fine old oak beams and 10,000 Tudor period bricks’.
Cassiobury was featured in Country Life on September 17, 1910. It was also featured in our recent publication, ‘Lost Houses of England.’ The outstanding carved staircase - either the work of Grinling Gibbons or Edmund Pearce - can be seen today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Today, Bedford is a peaceful enclave of distinguished country estates, about a 45-minute drive from Manhattan. Cassiobury House sits on 23.9 acres bordering the Beaver Dam River.
The 9-bedroom house comes with a two, 2-bed gatehouses as well as a heated swimming pool and barn. The grounds also offer direct access to the Bedford riding lanes extensive network of trails.
Guide price: $9.8m through Houlihan Lawrence (+1 914 234 9099; www.houlihanlawrence.com)
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The Henry VII-era house that was dismantled piece by piece and shipped to the USAAgecroft Hall, near Manchester, didn't meet the same miserable end as some of Britain's other country homes. Instead, it was shipped to the USA and repurposed as a museum.
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