Benham Park, Newbury, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest. 

An 18th century country house with pleasure grounds and formal 19th century garden terraces (possibly by William Andrews Nesfield), surrounded by a landscape park laid out by Lancelot Brown in the 1770s.

DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Benham Park lies 3 kilometres west of the centre of Newbury. The site, which covers about 150 hectares, is bounded to the north by the A4 London to Bath road, marked by a brick wall, to the west by the lane south from the A4 to Marsh Benham, and on the other sides by agricultural land and woodland. The northern half of the park slopes down from the north boundary, with the house sited part way down the slope, overlooking the valley of the River Kennet to the south at the bottom of the slope. Beyond Brown's diversion and enlargement of the river into the lake, the land is level. Formerly water meadows, this area is crossed by several waterways and the main course of the river itself. The setting is rural, with the small village of Marsh Benham close by to the west, and to the south of this the extensive area of Hamstead Park, with the A34 Newbury by-pass in the course of construction (1998) lying close to the east boundary.

REFERENCES

Victoria History of the County of Berkshire 4, (1924), pp 103-106

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966), p 225

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), pp 169-71

T Hinde, Capability Brown (1986), pp 181-2

M Brown, Benham Park Landscape Report (1983), [unpublished report, copy held in EH file]

Maps

An Accurate Survey of Speen Mannour ... Belonging to ... the Duke of Chandos, (1730s/40s), (Newbury Museum)

J Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

Map of Benham Manor, 1775 (Berkshire Record Office)
 

Description written: May 1998

Edited: March 2000