Chatfield/Haddon Heir Hunters

Today the heir hunters stumble on a treasure trove...

We turned it over, upon unwrapping it,

and seeing "Picasso" quite clearly.

..but will it be for nothing?

She must have had money at some point,

but I did get the impression that it was draining away.

While in Nuneaton, a fortune from a mystery man is discovered.

We knew the competition were on the case,

simply because there was a major asset, ie a property.

But will they be able to find the rightful heir?

It always goes through your mind that maybe there will be no heirs.

It's all in a day's work for the Heir Hunters.

-Yes, right here.

-Is it here?

-Yes.

In Bedford, heir hunter Peter Birchwood

is on an important mission.

This is the case of Patricia Chatfield.

She passed away a few years ago.

One of the things that has come up is that Mrs Chatfield has left

six large storage boxes in a storage warehouse here.

So we're coming here with the idea of going through everything,

seeing what's valuable,

and we'll try and clear out everything today

with the hope that the estate will benefit.

Initial estimates have put the value of Patricia's estate at £10,000,

but today that estimate could increase significantly,

depending on what they find in the storage crates.

Peter has invited Charles Ross Auctioneers along

to help identify any valuable items that could be sold at auction.

-Start at that end and work out?

-Don't mind.

And it already looks like they're going to have their work cut out.

-Right. OK.

-Righty-ho.

Peter also needs to search through Patricia's documents,

looking for details of any other assets

or any sign that she may have left a will.

We have occasionally had situations where the deceased has left a will,

but never bothered to take it in to a solicitor.

But maybe left it anywhere where she happens to think

would be a good place.

Patricia Chatfield died in 2014 in Battersea, in London,

at the age of 85.

Patricia grew up in Norfolk, where she and Betty became firm friends.

She came and worked, and took over my job in the canteens department

of Norwich Union Insurance Societies.

The two remained friends, even when Patricia began spending time abroad.

She had been backwards and forwards to America in her early days

because her mother went to live in the States.

So that she would go and see her mother from time to time.

She often used to come and stay, you know,

whenever she came back to England.

I suppose, in a way, we were the first people

that she got in touch with.

And I suppose we were sort of a surrogate family, perhaps.

There was nobody else, really.

In fact, the friends became so close,

Betty made Patricia godmother to her daughter, Jane.

She was our amazing, slightly eccentric,

glamorous godmother, Auntie Pat, as we called her.

But sadly, in 2014, Patricia's health took a turn for the worse.

She was quite unwell. I mean, she had a form of dementia.

Patricia passed away peacefully on the 20th of January 2014.

And with no known next of kin, it fell to Jane and her sister, Sarah,

to try and organise her affairs.

We always joked that she might leave it all to the cats' home.

I mean, the one thing she'd said, kept saying she would leave me her vintage clothing collection.

But Mum always thought that she would've left a will.

So, we... Yeah, you do want to...

You think if somebody's expressed their wishes,

that it would be good to try and enable those to be respected.

With no obvious sign of Patricia's family,

Jane and Sarah were unsure of what to do next.

But a chance meeting for Sarah offered a solution to their problem.

We didn't get anywhere and then you bumped into, erm...

-Hector.

-Hector at the party at Christmas.

Hector Birchwood, along with his father Peter, runs Celtic Research.

They didn't know what to do with her estate.

She had no known family, so she asked me if I would help.

Hector got to work,

and it soon became clear the search for Patricia's relatives

could be quite a challenge.

We initially established that Patricia was born in Norwich in 1928

to Thomas Sawyer and Mary Jones.

They divorced in 1940 and that left Patricia to be cared for

by her grandmother when her mother, Mary, went off to America.

It seems Patricia lived in the United States for some time with her mother.

She was first in Pennsylvania, and then we find her in New York.

It looked like Hector's search may have to go far and wide.

Every day the heir hunters are reuniting lost inheritances

with the rightful heirs,

and coming across amazing personal stories from within the families

they track down.

As we work more into the case,

is when it gets more and more interesting.

Some of those stories we find out are truly remarkable.

Those bits are thrilling,

absolutely rewarding to find out about.

Case manager Ben Cornish at heir hunting firm Fraser and Fraser

came across one such case on the Government's Bona Vacantia list.

So, the case of Raymond Haddon

was a case advertised by the government legal department.

The deceased was born as Raymond Haddon in 1938 in Nuneaton.

He died in Nuneaton, so it appears that he's lived there all his life.

With limited information, and rival firms also looking at the case...

I just wanted to check with you two things, the...

..Ben needed to quickly figure out if Raymond's estate was valuable.

We looked through the register and found out that he actually owned

the property, so that is a very good indication for us

that an estate is worth working.

Average property prices in Raymond's town meant the estate

was estimated to be worth as much as £130,000.

When there's a property on a case, the stakes are high

because you know there's a value to the estate.

And you know that other companies will be looking into the same matter

and you know that you're going to get competition.

The market town of Bedworth, in Warwickshire,

was home to Raymond Haddon for his whole life.

He lived a quiet and modest lifestyle,

and those who knew him remember him fondly.

I knew him all my life, you know?

Pete and Raymond grew up in the same area

and got to know each other over the course of 60 years.

Say, if he wanted me, to tell me anything,

he'd come and stand outside here so we can see him out there.

He used to walk up the entry and have a chat with him at the garden.

But Raymond was a private man,

and it seems few people got to know him well.

They kept their selves to their selves.

Raymond passed away on the 22nd of April 2016.

And with no known next of kin, his estate was advertised as unclaimed.

Hi, Josh. Just calling up...

Case manager Ben Cornish and his team took up the search for heirs.

They quickly established that Raymond hadn't married, or had children,

and so they began looking into his parents.

Thank you very much. Bye.

He lived with his father, a Charles Edward Haddon,

and his mother was an Amy Haddon.

Charles, the father, died in 2004, and the mother died in 1992.

With these crucial clues,

Ben checked records and discovered Amy's maiden name was Hazelwood

and she married Charles Haddon in 1937.

Now he could check if Raymond had any siblings.

We'd then conduct a search under the surnames of both parents.

So a Haddon to Hazelwood search, in this case.

We discovered that there was another child born to the marriage,

and it was actually Raymond's twin.

He had a brother called John Haddon, born in 1938.

If John was alive, he would be the sole heir to Raymond's estate,

but as the team began searching for him, they made a tragic discovery.

We found a record in 1960 of him dying in Nuneaton.

He had passed away from tuberculosis.

Raymond's brother had died at the heartbreakingly young age of 21.

I can remember when his brother died.

Nobody ever talked about it.

The difficult thing about the job is sometimes hearing

about the family history.

It's quite an emotional tale for most of the beneficiaries that we approach,

and it can pull on heartstrings.

But the team needed to push on,

and with Raymond having no close family to inherit his estate,

the heir hunters now had to spread the search for his family even wider.

So it's just that birth then that we need in?

We have to establish, first of all,

when and where the parents were born.

To help make this essential next step,

Ben immediately ordered up Charles and Amy's marriage certificate -

and it would reveal some intriguing information for the hunt.

So, when looking at the marriage certificate,

I noticed that Charles Edward Haddon was a silk worker.

That can really help us out with our research.

If you've got a common name and an unusual occupation,

it can really tie together families.

Raymond's father, Charles, worked at Courtaulds in Nuneaton -

one of the country's largest and oldest silk weavers,

going back over 200 years.

Over the centuries,

they had established a niche industry in ribbon weaving.

It was extremely successful.

The silk industry in the Midlands made luxury items

for export around the world.

The silk ribbon production was mostly for fashion.

It was millinery ribbons,

so for ladies' bonnets, and to dress the crinolines.

When the crinoline came into fashion,

the trimmings were what they called "frills and fancies".

This is being set up for an ottoman, a ribbed silk fabric,

which is often used in making the gowns for the judiciary.

It's very, very strong.

This particular piece of fabric here will have 10,500 silk warp threads

in its construction.

This craftsmanship meant workers, like Charles Haddon,

put in lengthy shifts on the loom.

Six and a half days a week, so you only got the Sunday afternoon off.

Incredibly long hours back then.

14 hours was pretty common.

And those hours were spent in challenging conditions.

LOUD CLACKING

Back in the office,

the marriage certificate that revealed Ray's father's profession

would give Ben even more crucial information to steam ahead

with his hunt for heirs.

Lovely, thank you.

So, we knew from the deceased's parents' marriage certificate

that the deceased's mother was born as Amy Hazelwood.

Hazelwood's a very good name to work, it's quite unusual.

A constant thing you'll hear us talk about are good surnames and bad surnames.

A name, we call it good, it means it's easy to work.

It means it's not very common.

We can cut a few corners on the research

because we've found it, we know it's right.

With Raymond's mother's maiden name of Hazelwood,

Ben could leap ahead with his investigation.

We discovered that her parents were George Henry Hazelwood and Hannah Fennemore.

So the 1911 census listed the whole family,

and we're pretty sure that was the whole family on the maternal side.

Ben had found Raymond's maternal grandparents,

George Hazelwood and Hannah Fennemore.

They'd had two more children, Nora and Hannah, Raymond's aunts.

All hopes of finding heirs on the maternal side

were now resting on these two aunts.

We then conducted searches for them,

because, obviously, their issue would be entitled to benefit,

but we noted that both had passed away as spinsters.

Nora in 1972, and Hannah in 1963.

It was a major setback for the team.

With only the paternal side of the family left to research,

doubts began to creep in.

When we discovered that there were no heirs on the maternal side of the family,

it always goes through your mind that maybe there will be no heirs.

Having thrown everything at the search for living relatives,

would the team be able to find any heirs to Raymond's estate?

In London, Hector Birchwood was searching for relatives of Patricia Chatfield,

and his search had taken him on an international course.

Passenger records showed that Patricia had first travelled

to America in 1942 at the age of 17,

and in those days, it was an epic voyage.

The early methods of travelling long-distance

would've invariably been linked to travel by sea.

In the late 1930s, travel on Cunard to Australia

would've involved a six-month return trip.

But Patricia wasn't travelling on any old ship.

Records show she sailed on some of the most prestigious liners

of the day, including the Queen Mary.

Travelling by liner was an event.

Opulence was the order of the day.

You would've had your own personal suite with steward,

and anybody who was anyone would've travelled on the liner services.

All of this luxury came with a hefty price tag.

A single ticket would've cost the equivalent of £18,000 in today's money.

And this was significant for the heir hunters.

They realised that Patricia was a very glamorous person.

So that really raised two questions.

Is the estate far more valuable than we really thought?

And would her family be anywhere in the world?

As Hector began searching through records,

the case became even more intriguing.

Patricia's death certificate was very enlightening.

It showed us that she'd been married several times.

She'd had four different married names.

With multiple marriages,

there was one thing Hector had to rule out first.

We had to find out if she had children by any of these men.

Hector began the search for Patricia's husbands.

And although Patricia was spending a lot of time in America,

her first marriage was much closer to home.

By the 1950s, she'd returned back to Norfolk.

And by 1958, she had married a man by the name of Peter Grice.

But for Hector, this marriage was a dead end.

Patricia's marriage to Peter Grice ended almost immediately

and they had no children.

Patricia soon returned to America

and started working in the British Consulate in New York.

Then she married her second husband, a Bolivian named Eduardo Paz.

And this marriage would take her even further around the world.

Patricia, I believe, travelled a lot around the world in the 1950s.

And I suspect, in this particular case, her travel was linked to her partner.

If Patricia's first trip to the States was in expensive style,

her next was the height of luxury.

Travel in the 1950s by jet was at the very cutting-edge of technology.

Jet aircraft were opening up the world to international travel -

and Patricia clearly was enjoying that privilege.

This was very luxurious.

Aircraft tickets were expensive.

Passengers on board received full service.

Air travel was an experience.

Maybe unlike today, where it's a commodity.

Patricia's tales of exotic travel added to her aura of glamour.

She was just so interesting.

And, obviously, she was unconventional.

Pat would turn up and...

Coming from London, or having just got off a plane...

Obviously having been all over the world.

Yeah, she was somebody you thought, "Wow!"

It was pretty glamorous, you know?

Over the next decade,

Patricia and Eduardo spent time living and working in America,

New Zealand, France and Brazil.

But sadly, after all the jet-setting,

in 1966 the couple divorced without having had any children.

But more research revealed yet more marriages,

in even more exotic locations.

Over the next decade, Patricia married twice more.

First to a man named Frank Chatfield in South Africa.

This marriage ended in divorce without children.

And then she married another man by the name of Earl Hustwick in California.

And we believe he passed away.

But Patricia's love life was about to take a very unexpected turn.

In 1985 we found Patricia's final marriage,

once again to Frank Chatfield,

the man that she had previously divorced.

She seems to have married him again

and then remained married to him until his death.

I think Pat was a romantic.

I think she absolutely entered every marriage hoping, believing that,

you know, this would... this was now going to be it.

Crucially, Hector's extensive searches for marriages

around the world confirmed a key fact.

Despite having numerous marriages,

Patricia did not have any children by any of the men that she married.

I think she did want to settle.

She would have loved to have had a family.

But that didn't happen, you know.

Although that, I think, was what she would have liked to have done.

Having ruled out immediate family,

Hector now needed to cast the net wider to try and find heirs

to Patricia's estate.

It was an important paper...

But if any were found, would they be inheriting a small fortune?

She must have had money at some point.

But I did get the impression that it was draining away.

Or would all the heir hunters' work be for nothing?

At the end of the day,

if the deceased wanted the estate to go to somebody else,

and they left a will, our fees can't be paid,

but that's the way it goes.

Every year in Britain, thousands of people get a surprise

knock on the door from the heir hunters.

That's good news for you, you can order the Ferrari.

Well, hang on a minute, we haven't found the will yet!

THEY LAUGH

As well as handing over life-changing sums of money,

the heir hunter's work can bring long-lost relatives back together.

-I'm so lucky.

-Yeah.

Because I've met, I met up with all of you!

But thousands of estates have eluded the heir hunters

and remain unsolved.

Today we've got details of two estates that are yet to be claimed.

Could you be the person the heir hunters have been looking for?

First is the case of Kathleen Jessie Peacock,

who died on the 9th of December 1989 in Worthing, West Sussex.

Not native to Worthing,

Kathleen was born in Bethnal Green and her maiden name was Webb.

Her estate was advertised by the Treasury's Bona Vacantia department.

But so far, no-one has come forward with a valid claim.

Is there a chance you're related to Kathleen Jessie Peacock?

Or do you know someone who could be?

Next is the case of Gerry Riordan,

who was born on the 19th of June 1902 in the Irish Republic,

and died on the 20th of March 1988 in Croydon, London.

Gerry never married and the name "Riordan" has links to County Antrim in Northern Ireland.

Are you a Riordan?

Do you hold the key to unlocking an estate

that could be worth a fortune?

If so, you could be in line for a surprise windfall.

In London, Fraser and Fraser were racing to find heirs to

the estate of Raymond Haddon,

that had been advertised by the government's Bona Vacantia division.

I just want to clarify with you if we're on the right track or not?

The danger of taking on a BV case is that there are many companies

that will be looking into the same matter,

and you've got to be really accurate with your research.

These two are alive as well.

Case manager Ben Cornish had been able to establish that Raymond

owned his home, worth an estimated £130,000.

And this mattered because heir hunters work on commission,

taking a pre-agreed percentage of an estate in return for tracing family members.

But the team's search wasn't going well.

They'd hit a brick wall on the maternal side of the family

and found no living relatives.

It basically reduces the chances of finding a beneficiary by 50%.

So now everything was riding on Raymond's father's family.

We still had the paternal family to look into,

and that was the next thing that we had to make sure we got right.

Ben needed to find Raymond's heirs as fast as possible.

So, this is the case of Haddon.

This is the family tree we've got so far.

Ben pulled in researcher Dan Wilshire to help.

So, when we were looking into next of kin for Raymond,

we kept to a particular circumference around Nuneaton,

simply because he was born and died in Nuneaton.

The team had found the name of Raymond's paternal grandfather

on his parents' marriage certificate.

He was Charles Edward Haddon.

And with this, they located Charles's marriage in 1906

and began the search for children.

So we knew that the majority of the family

would be in that particular area.

The team had already seen Raymond's father had spent his life

in the silk factories, making luxury items for the wealthy.

But Raymond's grandfather had a much more rough and ready existence.

From the marriage certificate,

we found out that Charles Edward Haddon, he's 22 years old,

he was a bachelor when he married,

so he wasn't previously married at all, occupation was a miner.

Charles Haddon lived in Baxterley, a few miles from Bedworth,

where Raymond spent his life.

In the late 19th and early 20th century,

both towns revolved around coal-mining,

and Raymond's grandfather would've worked in the local pit.

Coal-mining represented a way of life

and it represented a steady income.

It was seen as an essential way of making a living

and putting bread on the table.

But earning that wage meant Charles faced difficult conditions.

The normal working hours for a miner were approximately eight hours.

Within that, though, it's highly physical work.

This is a very, very traditional coal-mining implement,

something that every miner would've been familiar with.

It's a pick or a peck. Quite weighty.

And something that a miner may well have wielded

for his entire eight-hour shift.

To give you some example of how this works...

This would be considered quite a tall coal seam.

Normally miners were down on the floor,

or sometimes even on their backs,

hitting upwards with one of these.

Not only was it strenuous work, it was life-threatening.

Imagine we're hacking our way through a coal face

and it suddenly gives way, and immediately smashing through there.

There's potentially a void, and potentially gas.

That is one of the real dangers that a miner would face.

Any ignition of that gas, there'd be an immediate explanation,

and potentially not only would the miner be killed,

but potentially some of his colleagues as well.

Even if you avoided major injury,

the everyday work would slowly kill you.

The dust gets into your lungs, makes you cough, makes you retch.

A lot of miners talk about spitting black phlegm from their lungs.

So miners had their own coping mechanisms.

Drinking was very much the culture of the miner.

A lot of them used to say that it was the only thing,

in terms of beer or alcohol,

was the only thing that could take away the taste of the coal dust

from inside their mouths.

Charles Haddon's tough existence as a miner would've been painfully

obvious to his son, Charles, Raymond's father.

So perhaps it's no surprise he opted for the comparatively safe world

of silk weaving.

Knowing Charles Haddon was a miner

helped the team to locate him on the 1911 census,

with his wife, Sarah Jane Carter, and track down their descendants.

Obviously we've got Charles Edward and Sarah Jane.

It looks like they've had four children off their marriage.

These four children, the aunts and uncles of Raymond,

were the key to finding heirs.

So Dan immediately set about looking at the two youngest.

We realised that there are two paternal uncles of the deceased,

one called Frank Haddon, who was born in 1913,

and one called George Ernest Haddon, and he was born in 1916.

These two uncles would be over 100 years old.

So the team thought the best chance for heirs would be to search

to see if they had children.

We looked for marriage records and possible birth records

from those marriages of the two paternal uncles.

Frank Haddon actually passed away aged 18 in Foleshill.

And we did marriage searches in area for George E Haddon.

And we bought his death certificate

and we realised that he was a bachelor, as well.

When we found out that Frank and George hadn't had any children,

our hearts sank, really.

It was the team's last chance.

The older two children, Raymond's aunts, Elsie and Florence,

had to have children.

It depends what we're going to have on the certificate.

We found a marriage for Elsie to a Richard Galland.

Galland and Haddon is a good birth search for us.

They're both unusual names.

So we managed to find out that they had two children.

The team had finally made a breakthrough.

They were very close to finding heirs.

Further research showed Florence also married and had one child.

Now it was a race against time

to reach these three heirs before anyone else did

and pass on their share of Raymond's estate.

With the case having only three beneficiaries,

it was really urgent to get our representative to the individuals

as quickly as we could.

You know, it's a close relationship, they're cousins.

And because, you know, we knew the competition were on the case,

simply because there was a major asset, ie a property.

Ben called in his travelling researchers to meet the heirs

as soon as possible.

They headed straight for Pamela Galland,

daughter of Elsie Haddon, Raymond's eldest aunt.

All right, darling.

But the knock on door came as a shock for her and her son, John Paul.

I was surprised when he stood on the doorstep and said,

"Does Pamela Haddon live here?"

I couldn't even think who Pamela Haddon was!

And it was his daughter who says, "It's you, Nan!"

Back in the office, the team's hard work had paid off

and they'd located a total of three heirs to Raymond's estate.

OK, cool, I will. All right, bye.

The final value of the case was still unknown,

but heir Pamela believes some of Raymond's legacy

may have come from his mother, who she knew as Auntie Amy.

I don't know what happened,

but Auntie Amy had two very rich sisters.

And I assume Auntie Amy had all the money from what they had.

But one month later, there would be a remarkable twist to the case.

We've been into the property of the deceased.

One of our representatives went in there to collect

any financial papers to help us in the administration,

and it appears that the deceased may have left a valid will.

It's disappointing news for the team,

and means all the work they did to trace Raymond's heirs has been for nothing.

So the heirs that we've located will no longer be entitled to benefit.

Very disappointing for us because of the work that we've put in,

all the resources and all the man-hours.

But there is an important positive to the outcome.

We're happy, because the estate that the deceased had

will be directed according to his wishes.

Raymond's legacy will now go to a friend,

which is what he had intended all along.

But Raymond's cousin Pamela will still be left with happy memories

of her childhood with him.

We used to play football in the middle of the road,

cricket in the middle of the road.

And then we had the swings and things at the back,

and we all used to be corrugated around there.

Congregate!

-I think it was a very close-knit, very close-knit family.

-Very.

And Pamela's son, John Paul,

is enjoying learning about his Haddon ancestors.

-I'm finding it quite interesting.

-Good for you!

Well, you normally sit and listen.

Yeah, so, I'm finding it quite interesting.

At the storage unit in Bedford,

Peter Birchwood is also facing the prospect

of potentially uncovering a will.

Shame this is damaged.

Peter and son Hector have been working on the estate

of Patricia Chatfield for several months,

and her case has proved to be highly intriguing.

Patricia had died in London, aged 85,

having led a full and seemingly very glamorous life.

Particularly at Christmas, Mum would host parties.

And Pat is there, you know, the most glamorous again,

with pearls round her neck and obviously a full length maxi gown.

Beautiful fabric.

Patricia's spirit for adventure had seen her travel the world.

Something that was remarkable for the time.

But wherever she went, Pat always came back to Britain,

where friends Betty, Sarah and Jane were the closest thing she had to family.

I think we were her family in a way.

Erm... Obviously, Mum and her were very close.

In Bedford, Peter and Charles Ross Auctioneers

are building up a picture of Patricia's incredible life

as they sort through her possessions.

You know, it's good quality. Probably Far Eastern, I think.

They've spent the morning looking for valuable items

that will add to Patricia's £10,000 estate.

And it looks like it's been worth the effort.

There's some interesting things so far.

But also a lot of kind of everyday things you'd expect to find in any household.

So it's a question of going through the boxes and seeing what we can find.

Peter has been sorting through documents,

looking for details of any other assets

or signs that Patricia left a will.

But there are too many papers to look through in one day.

We've come to the point where we've got about halfway through the boxes.

There's an enormous quantity of paperwork.

She must have kept everything.

And I was going to take it all back in our cars

so the solicitor could check through it all,

but I don't think that's possible.

The auctioneers are also taking away many boxes of items

for closer inspection.

Before he leaves, though,

Peter has one last piece of business at the storage unit.

I didn't know how much she'd have, or how much there'd be.

Goodness.

He's invited Jane and Sarah along

to sort through some of Patricia's other belongings,

and it's bringing back memories.

Does this look familiar to you?

-Missoni!

-SHE GASPS

Oh, my goodness.

She would come in with the whiff of Los Angeles, or wherever she'd been.

And while no will has turned up yet,

it appears Patricia did leave something to those closest to her -

a box with Jane's name on it.

And it hits hard.

-Sorry.

-SHE SOBS

I suppose it's quite nice, because it validates,

-because we always thought...

-INDISTINCT

SHE GASPS AND LAUGHS

Peter's work at the storage container is now complete.

And he must spend the next few weeks

sorting through Patricia's documents.

In London, it was son Hector who had led the search for Patricia's heirs.

And having ruled out immediate family,

he now turned his attention to her parents.

Hector searched to see if Patricia had a brother or sister,

but he wasn't in luck.

Patricia was the only child from her parents' marriage.

But Hector did find a crucial piece of information.

Mary Jones and Tom Sawyer had divorced in 1940,

when Patricia was just 11.

That meant there was a chance they could have remarried

and had other children, who would be Patricia's half siblings.

Hector found that Patricia's mother did marry twice more,

but she had no further children.

So, next, he turned his attention to her father.

We started to see that maybe Patricia's father had married again.

And we eventually found a second marriage for him,

once we identified his death.

The crucial question was,

had Patricia's father had any more children?

This marriage to Barbara Thrower

seems to have led to a half sister being born, and that was Janice.

Patricia's half sister Janice had been born in 1942.

And if she were still alive,

she'd be the sole heir to the estate.

But Hector was about to make a rather sad discovery.

Janice was institutionalised after her father died in 1998.

She had severe learning difficulties.

Hector now needed to find Janice's power of attorney,

who would be able to manage the inheritance on her behalf.

And he managed to track down a cousin called Mary.

Mary had a power of attorney over Janice,

and she looked after her financial affairs.

Mary was able to confirm that she could manage the inheritance

on Janice's behalf.

It wasn't until she got older, that for some reason,

the mental state deteriorated very much.

She's got nobody else.

And I do feel sorry for her.

The first call was from my sister, Phyllis.

She had a call from Hector, and my sister then put him on to us.

I was surprised, because I knew nothing about Patricia

or Uncle Tom's first marriage until I was perhaps 30-40s.

It just wasn't spoken about.

So I didn't know.

And Janice never mentioned anything about this to me.

Mary believes Patricia's parents may have felt under pressure to marry.

You know, her mother was pregnant with Patricia

before they got married.

And I think that's the only reason, really.

The main thing is to make sure Janice has the money

to be looked after in the home.

And we are looking...

We're thinking she could most likely do with a nice, big telly.

Hector had succeeded in tracking down the sole heir

to Patricia's estate.

But two key questions remained - how much would it Janice be inheriting,

and had Patricia left a will?

It's a few weeks since his visit to the storage facility,

and Peter's made a big discovery.

I found a few bits and pieces in the belongings.

Information about a bank account in the UK.

I did find information about a house or apartments

that the deceased had owned back in South Africa,

where she spent some years.

I'm told now that

the house was sold a few years back, but the money is kept safely

and will be transferred to Mrs Chatfield's estate.

Peter's discovery means the estimated value of Patricia's estate

has now risen to nearer £40,000.

And after going through everything, no will has been found,

so all the proceeds will go to Janice.

But today, there's a chance that figure will rise even higher.

The items found in the storage facility are about to go under the hammer.

And since bringing everything back to the auction house,

the auctioneer's uncovered some very desirable pieces.

So, whilst going through a large quantity of the costume jewellery

that we found, which was thrown into a box, in amongst it,

we found this three-stone diamond ring,

which dates from the mid-20th century.

I think it's going to do very well at auction,

it's got an estimate of £600-900.

We've had plenty of interest in it already,

and I think it could do very well.

But there's one star item that has caught everyone's attention.

Perhaps the most interesting thing is this...

..dish, here, with a very good name on the back.

We turned it over, on unwrapping it, and seeing "Picasso", quite clearly.

And it is a limited edition.

A run of 500 were produced, in the mid-20th century,

designed by Pablo Picasso,

in the tufted bird pattern.

Peter and wife Maria have come along to see how the items sell.

Lot 330...

..is this three-stone diamond ring, very stylish-looking item.

Here we go, then. I can go straight in at £480.

And immediately, the ring has aroused serious interest.

-740, 760, 780.

-BIDDER:

-No.

No? £760 then, seated on the second row.

We're at 760...

Thank you, sir.

It's a terrific result,

and it's not the only one of Patricia's items to sell well.

But it's the Picasso plate, with an estimated value of £400,

that causes the biggest bidding war.

I can go straight in at £200, I'll take at 220 from the room or online.

We're at £850 online.

Is there 900 anywhere? 900 on the telephone.

950 online.

1,000. I've got 1,300 online now.

1,400.

OK, both telephones are out, then.

We're online at £1,300.

I shall sell it, then, at £1,300.

It's been a highly successful day.

It's an estimated value of around £6,000, at the moment.

So maybe we're looking at quite a good value for the estate.

We're very happy about that.

It's good news for the estate.

But for Mary, the inheritance will always be tinged

with an element of regret.

I wish she had known her sister.

Or half sister, but I really do.

Now, looking back on it all,

it would have been so lovely for her to have had somebody else,

other than her mother and father.

I think Janice would have loved it, really.

And I think Patricia would have done, by the sound of her.

It's a shame.