Benington Lordship

A country house, dating from the late 17th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The south front is primarily red brick, chequered with black headers, while the west wing is also red brick. Knapped flint-faced walls with stone dressings are present, and the gatehouse, constructed around 1842 by James Pulham of Broxbourne, is modelled in Pulham’s Portland Stone Cement, designed to resemble weathered cubical ashlar. The roofs are steeply pitched and covered in old red tile.

The main house is a large, square, three-story building with a double-pile plan and two mid-wall chimneys. The symmetrical south front is seven windows wide, featuring a plinth, gauged brick bands at the first and second floors, wide wooden bracketed eaves, and a central doorway which has been altered into a window. Most windows are box sash windows with 6/6 panes, although the top floor has 3/3 panes, all under flat gauged brick arches. Bolection moulded panelling is found in the south-facing rooms on the ground and first floors.

The entrance is now on the east side into a Gothick single-story range with three windows, accessed via four steps leading to double doors set within a four-centred pointed arch. This range incorporates two-light stone windows containing fragments of stained glass. Attached to the northeast is a tall Norman revival gatehouse with twin, flint-faced circular towers, crenelated with machicolations, linked by a stucco 'ashlar' facing wall. The central passage is defined by a round arch with a portcullis slot and masonic decoration. Corbelled machicolations are positioned above the outer arch, and the dripmould stops in the form of armoured demi-figures holding battle axes. A runic inscription is set within a cartouche over the gate. To the right of the gatehouse projects a two-story wing with simulated ashlar facing, diagonal buttresses, and a large three-light Norman window. A further block to the right presents a three-light Norman window with billet moulded fretwork in the head.

An L-shaped, two-story and attic west wing features a wide, lean-to roofed verandah along the west front, supported on columns above the terrace balustrade. The west front is five windows wide with a projecting pedimented centre flanked by hipped dormers. The south end of the west wing has four windows, two hipped dormers, and a half-glazed door with intricate geometric patterns of glazing bars.