Benington Lordship

Benington TL 2923 BENINGTON CHURCH GREEN (north side)

11/10 Benington Lordship 24.11.66

GV II*

Country house. Late Cl7, E entrance and gatehouse c1842 by James Pulham a modeller from Broxbourne, for the Proctor family, W wing c1906 for Bott family. Red brick chequered with black headers on S front. Knapped flint faced walls with stone dressings and gatehouse modelled in Pulham's Portland Stone Cement to appear to be weathered cubical ashlar. Red brick W wing. Steep old red tile roofs. A large square 3-storeys house of double-pile plan with 2 mid-wall chimneys. Symmetrical S front 7 windows wide with plinth, gauged brick bands at 1st and 2nd floors, wide wooden bracketed eaves and central doorway altered to a window. Box sash windows, almost flush, with 6/6 panes generally but 3/3 in top floor, all with flat gauged brick arches. Bolection moulded panelling to S rooms on ground floor and 1st floors. Entrance now on E into Gothick single-storey, 3-windows, range with 4 steps to double doors under 4-centred pointed arch. 2- light stone pointed headed windows containing fragments of stained glass. Attached at NE a tall Norman revival gatehouse with twin flint-faced circular towers crenelated with machicolations linked by a stucco 'ashlar' faces wall with vigourously moulded round arch to central passage with portcillis slot and masonic decoration. Corbelled machicolations over outer arch and dripmould stops in the form of armoured demi-figures with battle axes. Runic inscription on cartouche over gate. Projecting externally to right of gate a matching 2-storeys and cellar wing with simulated ashlar facing, diagonal buttresses, and large 3 light Norman window with spiral moulded mullions. Further block to right of flint and 'ashlar' with 3-light Norman window with billet moulded fret as tracery in head. L-shaped 2- storeys and attics W wing with wide lean-to roofed verandah along W front supported on columns above the terrace balustrade. 5 windows wide W front with projecting pedimented centre flanked by hipped dormers. 4 windows S end with 2 hipped dormers and half- glazed door with intricate geometric pattern of glazing bars. (A J Francis The Cement Industry 1796-1914: A History Newton Abbot 1977 pp 104-8 for Pulham).

Listing NGR: TL2965923660