[7][d] Driberg had made his name as the gossip columnist William Hickey in the Daily Express and in 1942 was elected member of parliament for Maldon, the Essex constituency in which Bradwell lodge was sited.

The house was unavailable to him during the Second World War as it was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force to serve as an officers' mess for the nearby RAF Bradwell Bay.

Their marriage had surprised Driberg's friends and connections as he was openly homosexual; some suspected that the partnership was in part to provide cover for his sexual orientation, as well as a chatelaine for his substantial country house.

[10][e][f] The grounds contain a rare Ginkgo biloba tree presented to Driberg when Chairman of the Labour Party by the Premier of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai.

[12][16] Bradwell Lodge is formed of two main structures, the remnant of the original Tudor manor house, and the 18th-century block added by Bate Dudley.

John Bettley, in his 2007 Essex volume of the Pevsner Buildings of England series, also notes the traditional attribution of parts of the interior design scheme to Robert Adam but states that there is no documentary evidence to support the claim.