Reviving History

A medieval castle that evolved gradually into a comfortable house was strikingly reconstituted in the 1840s with ambitious neo-Norman additions, as James Bettley explains

WHEN Ambrose Proctor of Ware, Hertfordshire, died in 1810, he left his considerable fortune (derived from the malting industry) to four great-nephews. The problem was that much of his estate consisted of property spread over a number of small farms in eight separate parishes, making it both inconvenient and inefficient to manage. It took an Act of Parliament, in 1824, to authorise the sale of the land in order to achieve ‘a more connected and convenient estate’.

With his portion, the eldest of the beneficiaries, George Proctor, a solicitor, purchased the manor of Benington, eight miles north-east of the town of Ware, from John Chesshyre. His three unmarried brothers took up residence at Thunder Hall, Ware.

‘Lordship’ is the name given to a number of Hertfordshire manor houses. The Saxon manor was granted by William the Conqueror to Peter de Valognes, sheriff of Hertfordshire and Essex in 1086, who made Benington his caput. It was presumably he who constructed the original earthworks, which were later fortified in stone, probably by his son Roger in the 1130s. There was a curtain wall and deep curved moat on three sides, with steeply sloping ground to the west, and an outer bailey, protected by earthworks, to the east.

In 1176–77, 100 picks were purchased for ‘levelling the tower of Bennington’ on the orders of Henry II. The foundations of the keep or tower in question—roughly 44ft by 41ft with a subsidiary entrance tower or forebuilding—survive. It’s unclear, however, whether demolition went ahead, as the castle is recorded as strongly garrisoned in 1193.

Shortly afterwards, it came into the possession of Robert Fitzwalter by marriage. He was outlawed by King John in 1212 and then the castle really was overthrown.