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Summary

Grade I listed stone pair of pillars at park entrance, but reported to have been moved from Hamstead Marshall gardens

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Listed Building (I) 1220645: GATE PIERS AND GATES AT BENHAM PARK, WEST LODGE
• Conservation Area: Benham Park
• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1000173: Benham Park

Other Statuses and Cross-References

• Old Listed Building Ref (pre 1984) (I): ø Map No 25 3/147 Gate Piers to Benham Park at Gravel Hill
  Brought from Hampstead [sic] Marshall. Piers crowned by stone carvings of trophies of arms.

Monument Type(s):

• GATE PIER (17th century - 1662 AD to 1678 AD)

Full Description

<1> The piers at the north west corner of Benham Park have trophies on top and are said to come from Hamstead Marshall. The listed building description <2> dates them to c1662-1678, probably by William Wynne or Winde. However, they are of a different character to the others around the gardens at Hamstead Park.

Walter Money's history of Speen<3> includes a reference to what appear to be similar gates, in connection with the mausoleum that the Margravine of Anspach erected to her husband in the grounds at the rear of their mansion at Benham Valence. The Margravine, previously Lady Craven, was a celebrity in the late 18th century and published her memoirs in 1826. In this anedoctal work she describes how she spared no expense for the memorial to the Margrave. The mausoleum was approached from the Bath Road by a pair of massive iron gates, which Money says were moved to a different location after the Margravine's death. He describes the gate pillars as 'ornamented at the top with bold battle-axe terminations, and the vertical bars..surmounted with massive spear-head points'. In 1892 he wrote that the 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 <4> at SU 4275 6860, but seems to have disappeared in the second half of the 20th century.

Gate '9' in draft report on Hamstead Marshall Gate Piers, January 2009.

A Heritage Statement in 2014 analysed the West Gate piers in detail in connection with an application for a new entrance in the north boundary wall. The stone gate piers are Grade I listed, and the listed building description attributes them to William Winde (c1645–1722), and suggests they were moved from Hamstead Marshall, another estate owned by the Craven family. The surviving gate piers at Hamstead Marshall vary in material, decoration and form of their capitals but have been attributed to Edward Pierce, who worked under William Winde. There are several differences however between the piers at Hamstead Marshall and the pair at Benham: the West Gate piers are surmounted by very large decoratively moulded capitals in the form of armour and weaponry and they are rusticated but do not have the decoratively moulded tablets down their centres. It is very unlikely the capitals were carved by Edward Pierce.

The iron gates and railings between the piers date to the 19th century. The pilasters that support the gates have weathered differently to the rusticated piers with more spalling and cracking; it is therefore possible that the piers were a later addition. The differential weathering also suggested that the piers and the pilasters are from different sources of stone, and possibly the pier blocks could be formed from artificial stone, though this could not be verified without intrusive inspection. The piers might have been added to the gate pilasters on the occasion of the construction of the west lodge, as they match its stonework.

It concluded that the origin of the piers and capitals was uncertain, but there might have been several phases of gates at the north-west corner of the estate.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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