Benington Lordship, Stevenage, England

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

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Benington Castle was built in the 1130s for the de Valognes family, slighted in 1176-7 by Henry II and garrisoned again in 1192-3. The castle was largely destroyed in 1212 after Robert Fitzwalter was outlawed, leaving only the bottom courses of the keep.

In about 1700 the Caesar family of Benington Place (now, 1999, known as Benington Park) built Benington Lordship on the site of an Elizabethan farmhouse, adjacent to the castle ruins. It was probably built as a dower house at about the same time as the family rebuilt Benington Place (which burnt down almost immediately). Benington Place, having been rebuilt and then sold to John Chessyre in 1744 (Victoria County History), burnt down once again, and at this John Chessyre moved into the Lordship.

In 1826 the last John Chessyre sold Benington Lordship to George Proctor, who, around 1832, commissioned a neo-Norman gatehouse, summerhouse and curtain wall to connect them, which together are known as The Folly, as well as additions to the house. For The Folly Proctor probably employed a local architect, Thomas Smith (1798-1875), with James Pulham (the father of James Pulham who founded the rockwork company) acting as the Clerk of Works. George Proctor died in 1840, and his son Leonard inherited the estate. Leonard built the stables, employing Obadiah Pulham, and lived on at the Lordship into the 1890s (VCH).

In 1905 Arthur Bott, a Staffordshire engineer, bought the Lordship upon his return from working in India. Mr Bott and his wife Lilian enlarged the house and garden, taking in areas of the park, and built a new kitchen garden adjacent to the stables. The existing garden areas were remodelled by the Botts, influenced by the designers of the period. By the 1970s the gardens required renovation, and were restored by the present owners during the 1970s and 1980s. The house remains (1999) in private ownership.