The National Trust has revealed how an Essex property it looks after has links to historic slavery and colonialism.

The connections are highlighted in a report which was commissioned by the heritage and conservation charity last September, as part of efforts to tell the history of colonialism and slavery at its historic places.

It details links to plantation owners and those who were paid compensation for enslaved people freed through abolition, as well as those who gained their wealth through the slave trade.

In total 93 properties across the country were found to have links.

Properties with connections to people involved in colonial expansion, including leading figures in the East India Company, or senior figures in administering colonies, including Winston Churchill’s home Chartwell, are included in the survey.

Some 29 properties cared for by the National Trust have links to successful compensation claims as a result of the abolition of slavery, such as Glastonbury Tor in Somerset, and Blickling Hall, Norfolk, the report shows.

The survey also documents those National Trust properties belonging to people who were involved in the abolition movement or the fight against colonial oppression.

And it highlights the presence of African, Asian and Chinese people working on English and Welsh estates.

The report draws on the Trust’s own archives and external evidence such as the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project run by University College London.

In Essex Hatfield Forest Shell House was found to have links.

It was built by Jacob Houblon III (1710–70) an MP and a member of the Cocoa-Tree Club (an elite gentleman’s chocolate-drinking establishment).

In 1729, the trustees of the family fortune purchased the Hallingbury Place Estate, including Hatfield Forest, of which Houblon took possession when he came of age in 1732.

Houblon came from a large family of bankers and traders.

The family name appears in documents dating from 1674 that indicate the Houblons had established a business partnership with the plantation-owning Hankey family.

Houblon & Hankey were ‘traders to Jamaica, Antigua and the Leeward Islands’.

Hatfield Forest Shell House is closely linked to the story of West Indies trade in the eighteenth century.

The report said: "It was built in 1757 by Jacob Houblon III to a decorative design credited to his daughter, Laetitia (1742–1828).

"The interior and exterior are embossed with shells from the Caribbean, West Africa and the Indo-Pacific.

"Cowrie shells are associated with the transatlantic slave trade and were carried by ship from the Maldives – via India and Britain – to the African coast to be bartered for enslaved Africans, who were then transported to the Americas."

Dr Tarnya Cooper, the National Trust’s curatorial and collections director said: “The buildings in the care of the National Trust reflect many different periods and a range of British and global histories – social, industrial, political and cultural.

“A significant number of those in our care have links to the colonisation of different parts of the world, and some to historic slavery.

“Colonialism and slavery were central to the national economy from the 17th to the 19th centuries.”

And she said it was the National Trust’s job, as a heritage charity, to research, interpret and openly share full and up-to-date information about its properties.

“This report is the fullest account to date of the links between places now in the care of the National Trust and colonialism and historic slavery,” she said, though she added it was not exhaustive and would be added to as more research was done.

The research has been used to update online information and will be used to help the Trust review visitor information and displays at properties.