The History of Bentley Village

The history of Bentley Village starts at least as early as the Roman period; archaeological evidence uncovered supports this fact. A detailed account of Bentley's past is provided in a book titled "The Church & Village of Bentley St. Mary in Hampshire" written by Mary Eggar and published by the Parochial Church Council. The following paragraphs are simply fragments highlighting the major events and intended to encourage visitors to dig deeper and seek out more information - the Mary Eggar Book, published in 1974, is a good starting point and copies are available in the church for a modest sum.

The village of Bentley lies on an ancient road running from London to Southampton and to quote Mary Eggar "must have been a marvellous place for men to live". Investigation has uncovered the remains of villas, country houses and farms dating from the Roman period and a Roman Burial Site dating from the first century. There is also evidence, through pottery remains, of an even earlier occupation prior to the Romans.

The earliest mention of Bentley in the Anglo-Saxon period occurs in about 680 AD and dating from at least the 9th Century it was granted, together with the Manor of Farnham, by the West Saxon Kings to the Bishops of Winchester - a period of tenure which lasted until the mid 1800s. As explained in the section of Bentley Church it is believed that a Saxon Church may have once stood on the site of the current church but the existing building dates from the Norman period. Visitors are recommended to to study the section on Bentley Church. Through the Middle Ages life continued in Bentley which remained a green clearing in the forest. The name "Bentley" means grass clearing in a forest - in this case meaning the Alice Holt Forest and it is bounded on one side by the river Wey. The current road through the village would, at that time, have been little more than a track running through the valley and used for centuries by all kinds of desirable and undesirable people. Britons, Celts, Romans, Normans, invaders, missionaries, pilgrims, highwaymen, outlaws and honest citizens must have all walked this road through the village down the ages. Like most heavily wooded areas during this time period the Alice Holt Forest was not the place to wander safely, apart from Highwaymen the forest was also home to wolves which were almost as dangerous as the Highwaymen.

In more recent times, and the last 400 years can be considered as relatively recent in the context of Bentley, the area has been well known for its hops. It seems that hops were first introduced into the area in Farnham about the beginning of the 1600s and later became widespread in the region. There are still hops grown in the area today, probably more so in Binsted than Bentley, but the practice has diminished to the point where hop fields are getting more difficult to find. Knowledgeable long term residents would probably claim that hop growing really declined in the area during the mid 1950s. The Eggar family were great Hop growers in the area and Richard Eggar was credited, in 1890, with the invention of the "rolling floor" to ease the drying process in the kilns.

The "region" has been proclaimed "Jane Austin Country" which is quite accurate as Jane Austin did live in Chawton, on the outskirts of Alton, for a number of years. A less well known fact is that Jane Austin's brother Henry, the Reverend Henry Thomas Austin, was Perpetual Curate of Bentley from 1824 to 1838. Mary Eggar's History of Bentley refers to Jane Austin undertaking a journey from Chawton to London with her brother Henry and taking with her the manuscript for "Mansfield Park" to read to him during the long journey.

In 1919 a very famous soldier bought Blackacre from a local family and in changing its name to Pax Hill created an important village landmark. That soldier was Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, who lived at Pax Hill in Bentley for the next 20 years. Since the death of Baden-Powell in 1941 Pax Hill has had a variety of owners. During the wartime period the house was in the hands of the War Department, it was then given, by Lady Baden-Powell, to the Girl Guides' Association. It was used as a Domestic Training College of Guides until the mid 1950s when it was sold after proving to be uneconomic. The house survives to this present day and is a private Nursing Home which, fortunately, retains the name of Pax Hill.

In similar fashion to Baden-Powell after the first World War a second, and probably even more famous, soldier settled in the area after the Second World war. In 1947 a ruined watermill on the River Wey in Hampshire, Isington Mill, was bought by Bernard Law 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein who lived there until his death on 24 March 1976. Following a state funeral, to which he was entitled as a Knight of the Garter, Viscount Montgomery was buried in a simple grave in the Churchyard at Binsted Parish Church. Stories about the "man" are legend in the area but perhaps the one which catalyses most with his character concerns the garden at Isington Mill. When Monty bought the Mill it was standing in a meadow overgrown with all sorts of weeds and thistles. Advice from friends was to have the garden plowed over and re-seeded - but Monty would have none of this. Instead, he took the attitude that the turf on the meadow was probably 1,000 years old and so decided it should be restored. Following restoration it is said that not one single weed was tolerated in the whole lawn, almost 1,000 square yards. Further, it is said that both worms and moles were absolutely forbidden.

This is a "potted" history of Bentley. There is much more and visitors are encouraged to seek it out; it makes fascinating reading.