Benfleet Hall

A house, now divided, was built in 1860 and extended in 1886 by Philip Webb for Spencer Stanhope. It is constructed of red brick with steep, plain tiled roofs, including hipped and half-hipped sections. The building features ridge stacks to the left, three rear stacks, and a large stack to the left of centre. The asymmetrical design is predominantly three storeys high.

The front of the house, facing the courtyard, has several noteworthy elements, including a single-storey range with an attic dormer under a hipped roof to the left. An end bay projects with an angle bay window. A window with a cambered head sits to the right, framed by a pointed arch filled with herringbone brickwork. A square wooden bellcote with a pyramidal roof and weathervane is situated on the ridge of the end bay to the left. A two-storey range is located to the right, with an attic within a half-timbered gable featuring dentilled bargeboards. Hipped roof dormers flank the right side, contributing to the irregular arrangement of cambered head windows set in pointed arched surrounds. The main door, positioned to the left of centre, is recessed with a three-step arched surround.

The rear of the house features a projecting single-storey gable front bay, half-timbered above with a large stack to the left. An inscription is visible over the ground floor to the left. On the right-hand return front, an inscribed foundation stone records that it was placed by Viscount Mountmares in 1886 for the extension. Spencer Stanhope, the patron of the house, was connected to Morris and Co and the Arts and Crafts Movement, notably through his involvement in the Oxford Union project. Contract drawings dated 1860 and 1864 are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum print room.