Bentley Priory was a medieval priory or cell of Augustinian Canons in Harrow Weald, then in Middlesex but now in the London Borough of Harrow. There are no remains of the priory, but it probably stood near Priory House, off Clamp Hill.[2]
Roman remains have been found in the grounds of the priory.[3] The name 'Bentley' is thought to derive from 'beonet', a kind of coarse grass.[4]
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Bentley Priory is believed to have been founded in in 1171 by Ranulf de Glanvill, who was King Henry II's Justiciar from 1180 to 1189. It was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, and was in the patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury. It may have been founded as a cell of St Gregory's Priory, Canterbury, and was certainly under its rule by 1301, when the prior of Bentley was reported to have let a farm without the approval of his superior, the prior of St Gregory's.[5]
In 1243 the king pardoned the prior the interest on 60 shillings which he had borrowed from the Jews, and in 1291 the prior's goods at Stanmore were valued at 10 shillings, and land and rents in Wotton at 13s 4d. It is referred to in the early 14th century, but according to the court rolls of manor of Harrow in 1535, St Gregory's had ceased to maintain a cell at Bentley many years earlier.[5]
St Gregory's was dissolved in 1536, and the buildings and land of the former Bentley Priory were granted to Archbishop Cranmer, but in 1542 he was forced to hand them back to the king, and in 1546 they were granted to Henry Needham and William Sacheverell. In 1775 Sir John Soane designed a new house north of the original priory called Bentley Priory,[6] which was acquired by the Marquess of Abercorn in 1788.[2] This house was rented by Queen Adelaide, the widow of King William IV, in 1846, and she died there in 1849.[7]
In the Second World War, Bentley Priory was the headquarters of RAF Fighter Command. The grounds are now Bentley Priory Nature Reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest.