Benington Lordship, Stevenage, England

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

A country house surrounded by mid-19th- and early 20th-century gardens, within a landscape park.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Benington Lordship lies to the north-west of the south-west part of the village of Benington, about 5 kilometres east of the centre of Stevenage. The roughly 30 hectare site is bounded to the north and west by agricultural land, and to the south and east largely by the Aston to Benington lane. The parish church and churchyard form part of the south-east boundary, south of the house. The ground is hilly, with the site bisected centrally from south-west to north-east by a valley whose hillsides lead up to opposing plateaux to west and east. The setting is largely agricultural, with Benington village adjacent to the east and, 1.5 kilometres to the east, the grounds of Benington Park.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

Victoria History of the County of Hertfordshire 3, (1912), pp 73-5

B Jones, Follies & Grottoes (1974), p 343

B Cherry and N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Hertfordshire (1977), pp 94-5

R Bisgrove, The Gardens of Britain 3, (1978), p 33

Hertfordshire Countryside 36, no 264 (April 1981), p 49

Country Life, 171 (13 May 1982), pp 1346-8; no 27 (8 July 1993), p 62

Benington Lordship A History, guidebook, (no date, late 1990s)

Maps

Benington estate map, 1743 (private collection) 

Description written: June 1999

Edited: October 2000