Benham Park

Benham Valence
Gates to Benham Valence

Benham Park is a mansion (on the site of Benham Valence Manor) in the English ceremonial county of Berkshire and district of West Berkshire. It is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Newbury within 500m of a junction of the A34 trunk road Newbury by-pass outside the town side, in the Marsh Benham locality of Speen, a village within and outside of the Newbury by-pass. Of grades I to II the house is grade II* listed (the mid category) and park is at grade II.

History

The manor of Benham Valence was granted by Elizabeth I to Giovanni Battista Castiglione, her Italian tutor, in 1570. He is buried at St Mary's Church in Speen.

Architecture and use

The current house was built by Henry Holland and Capability Brown for William, 6th Baron Craven in 1775. It was later the home of his widow, Elizabeth Craven and her second husband, Charles Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The building is Grade II* listed,[1] and one of its pairs of ornate gate piers is Grade I listed.[2][3] The park itself is at Grade II and has a lake with mill beside the house and aqueducts or artificial drains leading across marshy wetland to the River Kennet to the far south.[4]

The building was converted into offices in 1983[5] by the IT company Norsk Data, who used it as their headquarters for European operations (outside Norway), until the company's dissolution in 1992. Then it was home to 2e2 an ICT Lifecycle Services Provider till 2012 when that was dissolved.[6] Also within the grounds is based Cognito[7] a mobile data solution provider, Exony and Idox. All of which have now moved to other premises as the phases comprising the office block were demolished.

References

  1. ↑ Historic England. "Benham Park, Bath Road  (Grade II*) (1220740)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  2. ↑ National Monuments Record
  3. ↑ Historic England. "Gate piers and gates at Benham Park, West Lodge  (Grade 1) (1220645)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  4. ↑ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1000173)". National Heritage List for England. Benham Park (Park and Garden) Grade II listing entry.
  5. ↑ Royal Berkshire History: Benham Park
  6. ↑ http://2e2.com/contact-us/newbury.aspx
  7. ↑ http://www.cognito-iq.com/location-map.html

External links

Media related to Benham Park at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 51°24′17″N 1°21′42″W / 51.40479°N 1.36164°W / 51.40479; -1.36164

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, October 18, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.