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Summary

Stone monument erected by the Margravine, formerly Lady Craven, probably in 1823 within Benham Park, but removed after 1828

Monument Type(s):

• MAUSOLEUM (19th century - 1823 AD? to 1828 AD?)

Full Description

The Margravine of Anspach, previously Lady Craven, owned the Benham Park and Hamstead Park estates in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. After the death in 1806 of her second husband, a European aristocrat, she erected a monument to him in the ornamental grounds at the rear of the Benham mansion <1>. According to her memoirs, she spared no expense for this mausoleum, a solid structure of stone with an interior of rare marbles. It could be approached via massive iron gates from the Bath Road, and there was a nearby cottage for a caretaker who showed passing travellers the attraction. When the Margravine died in 1828 the mausoleum was dismantled and its materials sold by auction, although the monument by Canova which had been in it was reerected inside Speen church. Money noted in 1892 that the site of the mausoleum could 'still be identified by the difference in the brickwork of the wall when the gates were removed and the opening built up' <1>. His description of the gates with pillars topped with bold battle-axe terminations sound similar to the military gates by the west lodge at Benham Park in the 21st century, although he said that at the end of the 19th century the mausoleum's gates were fixed to the entrance to a road leading to the Firs, Furze Hill in Stockcross. This house can be seen on the First Edition Ordnance Survey <3> at SU 4275 6860, but seems to have disappeared in the second half of the 20th century.

No mention is made of the site of the mausoleum in the description of the Registered Park of Benham <4>.

Research on the diary of one of the daughters of the Margravine <5> has revealed that the monument was most likely not completed until 1823. Georgiana Craven records that her mother was visiting England to put up the monument at Benham, and that she mentioned on 13 August 1823 that the cases containing the monument had arrived. On 6 December 1824 Georgiana's diary has the entry "I walked to the Monument & all along My old Terrace walk grown up & looking lovely".<5> It would therefore appear that the mausoleum had a relatively short life of perhaps only five years.

The grid reference given for this monument is approximate as its exact location has not been verified.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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