Bentley Hall

Bentley Hall is a house dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries, with later alterations and additions. The house is timber framed and largely brick built, with herring bone nogging infill. The north-west gable features red brick with black header diapering, while the front has plasterwork above a carved bressumer. An 18th-century and early 19th-century red brick east wing has also been added. The building has a roughly half-H plan, with a gable facing south-west from the west wing.

The original external brick chimney stack is at the rear (south) of the central range, featuring two diagonal shafts, an end ridge stack, and a stack in line with the west range. There are also external end stacks to the east range. The roofs are covered in red plain tiles. The house has two storeys and attics.

The original hall and west cross wing project from the north facade. The hall features a carved bressumer depicting foliage, heraldic beasts, and two shields bearing the dates 1582 and initials LT (Lionel Tollemache) and ST (Stanhope Tollemache). Current owners believe the figure 2 on the shield has been reversed and should read 1528. The four jetty brackets are supported by pilasters with moulded capitals. The first floor has three vertically sliding sash windows facing the hall, and four-light, leaded casements with transoms to the cross wing. The ground floor has a five-light, leaded casement with a transom, and vari-light side mullions to the hall, and a four-light, leaded mullion to the west cross wing. The doorway has a four-centred head, sunk spandrels, and a plank and muntin door. Various reproduction mullions and transoms, along with small-paned vertically sliding sashes, are found on other faces, with a three-window range of tripartite vertically sliding sashes on the east face of the east wing.

Inside, much of the original timber frame remains exposed, featuring stop-chamfered and moulded ceiling beams. A screens passage has two segmental-headed doorways. The plastered fire surround in the hall has been restored to match the original first-floor four-centred arch surround with sunk spandrels and red brick jambs. The kitchen has a large red brick fireplace with chamfered jambs and a four-centred arch, incorporating a bake-oven with a four-centred head to the left, and a brick herring bone pattern kitchen floor. The bedrooms and landing retain original flooring. A 17th-century panelled door with ironmongery and a two-board, nailed door with multiple keyholes are also present. Later features include an 18th-century cupboard with five shelves, fluted pilasters with moulded capitals and bases, a fully panelled bedroom, another bedroom with panelled dado and panels below the windows, a cast iron bedroom hobgrate with a moulded surround, and a Regency drawing room with panelled window shutters and a moulded fire surround.