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Bentworth Hall
Bentworth Hall in 2012
Bentworth Hall is located in Hampshire
Bentworth Hall
Location within Hampshire
General information
LocationBentworth, Hampshire
CountryEngland
Completed1832, older hall in early 14th century

Bentworth Hall is a country house in the parish of Bentworth in Hampshire, England. It is situated to the east of the hamlet of Holt End, and is approximately 4 miles (6.4 km) from Alton, its nearest town. The present day Bentworth Hall is enclosed by its own wood. This hall, consisting of five wings, dates to 1832, when Roger Staples Horman Fisher purchased the estate and constructed a new mansion with an 800 metres (2,600 ft) drive to the south of the old manor house. The previous Bentworth Hall, now known as Hall Place was built in the early 14th century and is a Grade II listed building in the village of Bentworth itself.

History

Early manor history

Bentworth is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Survey that was ordered by the first Norman king, William the Conqueror. However, the Domesday entry for the Hundred of Odiham mentions that it had a number of outlying parishes. Soon after Domesday, Bentworth became an independent manor in its own right. In about 1111 it was given by King Henry I "Beauclerc", the youngest son of William the Conqueror, together with four other English manors, to the diocese of Rouen and Geoffrey, Count of Anjou.[1] When King John began losing his possessions in Normandy he took back the ownership of many manors, including Bentworth. He then temporarily ceded the manor of Bentworth in 1207–8 to the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches.[2] It was John who signed Magna Carta in June 1215 at Runnymede, staying at Odiham castle 10km north-east of Bentworth the night before.[3] However, the manor was returned to the Archbishops of Rouen, who successively held the manor until 1316, when Edward II appointed Peter de Galicien custodian of the manor in that year.[4]

William Melton, Archbishop of York, owner of Bentworth Hall in the late 1330s

The old Bentworth Hall

Some time after 1280, most likely 1320s, a new stone hall-house was built in Bentworth, possibly by the constable of Farnham castle, William de Aula.[5] It is a typical medieval hall-house and has been variously called Bentworth Hall (until 1832) and Bentworth Manor House. Today it is known as Hall Place. In 1330 Matilda de Aula was given permission to have a private chapel at Bentworth Hall. In 1336 ownership of the manor of Bentworth passed to William Melton, Archbishop of York.[4] Upon his death in 1340 he left his possessions to his nephew William de Melton, son of his brother Henry. In 1348, William de Melton obtained the king's permission to give his manor to William Edendon, Bishop of Winchester, and then ownership of the manor of Bentworth passed by marriage to the Windsor family, who had been constables of Windsor Castle. However, Bentworth Hall was evidently returned to the Melton family, as it is mentioned among his possessions in an inquisition taken in 1362–3, and descended to his son, Sir William de Melton.[4] Sir William de Melton's son, John de Melton, inherited the house in 1399 and was still being recorded as owner of Bentworth in 1431.[4][6] He died in 1455, and was succeeded by his son (d.1474), then his grandson John Melton.[7] The manor of Bentworth itself was said to have remained in possession of the Windsor family for at least one hundred and fifty years.[4]

In 1590, Henry Windsor (1562–1605), the 5th Lord Windsor, sold the "sub-manor of Bentworth" to the Hunt family who had been tenants since the beginning of that century.[4] Ownership passed in 1610 to Sir James Woolveridge of Odiham and in 1651 to Thomas Turgis, a wealthy London merchant.[4] His son, also Thomas, was described as one of the richest commoners in England and in 1705 he left the manor of Bentworth to his relative William Urry, of Sheat Manor, Isle of Wight.[4]

In 1777 the Urry descendants were daughters Mary and Elizabeth, who married two Catholic brothers, Basil and William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton Hall, Staffordshire.[4] Their sister-in-law was Maria Fitzherbert, the secret wife of the Prince Regent, later King George IV.[8] In about 1800, Mary Fitzherbert (who had 11 children), became owner of Bentworth Manor and Manor Farm (now Hall Place).[4]

The post-1832 Bentworth Hall in 1848, from a sale catalogue
The southern side of Bentworth Hall in 1905

Post-1832 Benworth Hall

In 1832, Hall Place was sold at auction at Garraway’s Coffee House in London by the Fitzherberts to Roger Staples Horman Fisher for about £6000. He then started building the current Bentworth Hall just half a mile to the south at 51°8′52″N 1°3′0″W / 51.14778°N 1.05000°W / 51.14778; -1.05000, some 500 metres east of the Bentworth-Medstead road and the hamlet of Holt End at the end of a 800 metre private drive.[9] It is now split into several private dwellings. In 1848 the Bentworth Hall estate was sold to Jeremiah Robert Ives, including the Old Manor House and the new hall.[10] The Ives family later included George Cecil Ives who lived for a time at Bentworth Hall with his widowed mother, Emma. In 1897, Emma Ives died and ownership of the Bentworth Hall estate passed to her son Colonel Gordon Maynard Gordon-Ives who had in 1890 built and lived in Gaston Grange. After his mother died he continued to live there, leasing Bentworth Hall to W. G. Nicholson, a Member of Parliament. Colonel Gordon-Ives died 8 September 1907 and the estate passed to his son, Cecil Maynard Gordon-Ives, a Captain in the Scots Guards in the Great War", who occupied it until his death on 23 July 1923.[11] The Bentworth Hall Estate of 479 acres was then offered for sale by John D Wood & Co in 1924 and again by them in 26 June 1930, when an A. Willis purchased it,[3] and after this, Major John Arthur Pryor lived at Bentworth Hall until the estate was taken over by the military during the Second World War.[12]

In 1947, the Bentworth Hall estate was bought by Major Herbert Cecil Benyon Berens, who was a director of Hambros bank in London from 1968.[13] In 1950, Major Berens built two new lodge houses at the junction of the drive to Bentworth Hall with the main road through the village towards Medstead. In 1951, the Moon Inn on Drury Lane was destroyed by a fire along with the children's home.[14] Later, parts of the Bentworth Hall estate were sold to local farms, and some clearing of trees and hedges produced larger fields that were easier to crop.

Major Berens died at Bentworth Hall on 27 October 1981 and after this the remaining estate was put up for sale.[15] It was first offered as a single property and then as several, Bentworth Hall and its outbuildings being divided into a number of separate dwelling units, which is the position today.

Hall Place – the previous Bentworth Hall – in the early 20th century
Hall Place in 2012

Hall Place (the former Bentworth Hall)

Hall Place (the former Bentworth Hall or Manor) is a Grade II* listed medieval manor house, located along the main road of Bentworth at 51°9′19″N 1°3′11″W / 51.15528°N 1.05306°W / 51.15528; -1.05306. It was built in the early 14th century, with extensive additions in the 17th and 19th centuries.[16] The hall is believed to have been constructed by either the constable of Farnham Castle, William de Aula, or John of Bynteworth (Bentworth), and served for some time as the manor court.[5][16] The de Aula family, however, are documented as being the first owners, followed by the de Meltons.[5]

The hall has thick flint walls, gabled cross wings,[17] with a Gothic stone arch and 20th-century boarded door and two-storey porch.[16] Pevsner mentions that the porch is early 14th century.[18] The west wing of the house has a stone-framed upper window and very large attached tapered stack.[16] The east wing has sashes dated to the early 19th century.[16] The old fireplace remains in the north-facing room with its roll moulding and steeply pitched head.[5] A chapel in the grounds was part of the house complex and was added soon after building in 1330 under the request of Matilda de Aula.[5] Pevsner notes that this building is now a dairy.[18]

References

  1. ^ Creighton, Mandell; Winsor, Justin; Gardiner, Samuel Rawson (1919). The English Historical Review. Longman. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  2. ^ Vincent, Nicholas (8 August 2002). Peter Des Roches: An Alien in English Politics, 1205-1238. Cambridge University Press. p. 72. ISBN 978-0-521-52215-1. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  3. ^ a b Country Life. April 1965. p. 18. Retrieved 14 February 2012. Cite error: The named reference "Country life" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 4". accessed from British History Online. 1911. pp. 68–71. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |authors= ignored (help)
  5. ^ a b c d e Emery, Anthony (2006). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: Southern England. Cambridge University Press. p. 309. ISBN 978-0-521-58132-5. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  6. ^ Feud. Aids, ii,. 1856. p. 314.
  7. ^ Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association (1886). The Yorkshire Archæological and Topographical Journal. The Association. p. 420. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  8. ^ Munson, James (2001). Maria Fitzherbert: The Secret Wife of George IV. Constable. ISBN 978-0-09-478220-4. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  9. ^ Smith, Georgia (June 1988). Bentworth: the making of a Hampshire village. Bentworth Parochial Church Council. pp. 52–55. ISBN 978-0-9513653-0-4. Retrieved 19 February 2012.
  10. ^ Burke, Bernard (1858). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. Harrison. p. 618. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  11. ^ Inscription on the Gordon-Ives grave in Bentworth Churchyard
  12. ^ Burke, Sir Bernard; Pirie-Gordon, Charles Harry Clinton (1937). Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry: Founded by the Late Sir Bernard Burke. Shaw. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  13. ^ Grossman, David (1972). Who's Who in British Finance. R. R. Bowker Co. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  14. ^ "The Villager Parish Magazine of Bentworth, Lasham, Medstead and Shalden". The Villager: 8, 9. April 2011. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  15. ^ "Obituaries in 1981". ESPN. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  16. ^ a b c d e "Hall Farmhouse, Bentworth". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  17. ^ "Hall Farm, Bentworth, Alton, Hampshire" (PDF). Thames Valley Archaelogical Services. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
  18. ^ a b Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002). The Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300096062. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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