The mural, titled Morning is Broken, depicted a silhouetted young boy – next to a silhouetted cat in a window – opening corrugated iron “curtains”.

The work was confirmed in three photographs posted last week on the anonymous street artist’s Instagram account. The piece is shown in a full-length image of the derelict property, which was covered in ivy, and had peeling white paintwork and missing roof slates on a side building.

There is a closeup of the artwork in another photo and the third shows demolition work that is being carried out on Blacksole Farm.

The final photograph shows the wall on which the artwork originally appeared, with the image also showing a digger, a skip and a pile of brick rubble on the ground as a workman looks on.

The skip company told the PA news agency that the bin which appears in one of the photographs was at a property in Herne Bay and the firm’s only involvement in the project was in providing the bin.

The site, owned by Kitewood, is earmarked for dozens of new homes and demolition work started on Tuesday, with contractors unaware at the time that the artwork was by Banksy.

One of the contractors, George Caudwell, told website KentOnline: “We had no idea it was a Banksy. It made me feel sick realising it was a Banksy – we were gutted.

“We started demolishing it yesterday. The landowner watched us do it and didn’t know either.”