Bentley Memorial Hall

A hundred years ago Bentley Village consisted of narrow roads and was mainly an agricultural community with two pubs located within the close confines of the village and a further pub close to the station. Today, Bentley Village consists of narrow roads, once you leave the main road through the village, and is still very much an agricultural community, at least on the surface, and now has just one pub, "The Star", within the close confines of the village. One pub, the "Red Lion" closed in the early 70s. The second also finally closed in the early 70s following the demise of its main source of customers and closure of the rail branch-line from Bordon Camp which conveyed servicemen to the aptly named "Railway Arms" located conveniently right outside Bentley Station. The pub is now a private house.

However, the village shop has been in the same family for almost 60 years and now involves the third and fourth generations of the family still serving the local community.

Following a similar pattern to other village communities Bentley has retained the appearance of being an agricultural community, which essentially it still is, but the actual number of local residents employed on the land has reduced significantly as a consequence of mechanisation and modern farming techniques. Today the working population of the village is more likely to be employed in service industries, either in London, in the surounding towns or a small number within the village's own small business centres - Bentley Industrial Centre or Bentley Business Park. It is quite amazing that Bentley has developed a thriving and successful, but admittedly small, business community.

Bentley Village Stores

The population of the village is now getting increasingly younger as each year passes and long established residents are replaced by those families lucky enough to escape from from continuingly densely populated urban areas.

There has also been a number of small housing developments in the village. Bab's Field was the first to be built just after the second world war as part of the government's council house building programme. More recently private housing developments at Weybank and at Eggar's Field (named after an important local family) have served to increase the village population. However, it should be remembered that Bentley is still not large enough to be rated as a "village", officially it is still a "hamlet"

The Star Pub

The one pub left in the village is "The Star". It is located in the centre of the village next to the local shop.

There are also the village playing fields used for local football matches during the winter season and the more tranquil activity of "Village Cricket" in summer. This venue also serves as host to the village fete each July.

Just a few hundred yards from the the pub, between the shop and the playing fields, visitors will find the village pond - complete with ducks, of course, coots and many other forms of wild life.

Today Bentley offers visitors an almost unique opportunity to:

• see a village which bears the signs of having changed very little in the last 50/100 years
• attend the village fete, in the month of July, which recently celebrated its centenary
• visit the attractive 12th century church
• experience a feeling of timelessness without actually realising what it is at first

There are no Theme Parks, Adventure Playgrounds, Holiday Villages or even any Dolphins - just the tranquil peace and quiet that is real England. There is, however, the Alice Holt forest located on the south east edge of the village - a large area of Forestry Commission land open to the public for woodland walks with an abundance of wild life. There are some facilities for families as well.