{{Short description|Country house in Berkshire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2025}} {{Use British English|date=August 2025}} {{Infobox building | name = Benham Park | image = Benham Valence - near Speen and Newbury - geograph.org.uk - 6225.jpg | image_alt = | caption = Benham Park | pushpin_map = Berkshire | pushpin_map_alt = | map_caption = Location in Berkshire | location = Speen, Berkshire, England | coordinates = {{coord|51.40479|-1.36164|type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | years_built = 1772–75 | embedded = {{Designation list | embed = yes | designation1 = Grade II* Listed Building | designation1_offname = Benham Park | designation1_date = 6 June 1952 | designation1_number = {{NHLE|num=1220740|short=yes}} | designation2 = Grade I Listed Building | designation2_offname = Gate piers and gates at Benham Park, west lodge | designation2_date = 6 June 1952 | designation2_number = {{NHLE|num=1220645|short=yes}} | designation3 = Grade II Listed Building | designation3_offname = Gate piers and gates at Benham Park, east lodge | designation3_date = 6 April 1967 | designation3_number = {{NHLE|num=1220643|short=yes}} | designation4 = National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens | designation4_offname = Benham Park | designation4_type = Grade II | designation4_date = 30 September 1987 | designation4_number = {{NHLE|num=1000173|short=yes}} }} }} thumb|The Valence photographed in 1904 '''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 {{convert|2|mi|km}} west of Newbury within {{convert|500|m}} of a junction of the A34 trunk road Newbury bypass outside the town side, in the Marsh Benham locality of Speen, a village within and outside the Newbury bypass. The house is a Grade II* listed building and the park is Grade II.
==Architecture and 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.
The current house was built between 1772–1775, and designed by Henry Holland and Capability Brown, for William Craven, 6th Baron Craven. It was later the home of his widow, Elizabeth, and her second husband, Alexander, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. The building was three storeys tall, nine bays wide, in a plain neoclassical style, of stone, with a tetrastyle Ionic portico.<ref>page 161, Buildings of England: Berkshire, Geoffrey Tyack, Simon Bradley, Nikolaus Pevsner, 2010 2nd Edition, Yale University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-300-12662-4}}</ref>
The house was greatly altered in 1914; the portico at the rear of the house (facing the Great Lake) had its pediment removed and replaced by a stone balustrade. The roof was lowered in pitch and hidden behind a balustrade decorated at regular intervals. The servants' quarters (on the top left hand side of the house behind the loggia) were also demolished due to poor structural condition. However, the Circular Hall in the centre of the building, with its large niches and fine plasterwork, is probably as designed by Holland; it has an opening in the ceiling rising to the galleried floor above and a glazed dome. The principal staircase is also original.
The house is Grade II* listed,<ref name=bp>{{NHLE |num=1220740 |desc=Benham Park, Bath Road |grade=II* |access-date=2 September 2014}}</ref> and one of its pairs of 17th-century ornate stone gate piers, removed from Hamstead Marshall, is Grade I listed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1220645|title=Gate piers and gates at Benham Park, West Lodge, Speen |website=Historic England}}</ref><ref>{{NHLE |num=1220645 |desc=Gate piers and gates at Benham Park, West Lodge |grade=I |access-date=2 September 2014 |fewer-links=yes}}</ref> The park itself is Grade II listed and has a lake with a mill beside the house and aqueducts or artificial drains leading across marshy wetland to the River Kennet to the far south.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1000173 |desc=Bentham Park (Park and Garden) |grade= II |access-date=12 December 2014 |fewer-links=yes}}</ref>
[[File:William, 6th earl of Craven, holding the Benham castle plan, by Thomas Beach.jpg|thumb|William, 6th Baron Craven, holding the Benham plans (by Thomas Beach, 1778)]] In the late 19th and early 20th century, Benham Place was the family seat of the Sutton baronets.<ref>William Page and P.H. Ditchfield (eds). [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62688 'Parishes: Speen'], ''A History of the County of Berkshire: Volume 4'' (1924), pp. 97–110. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62688. Date accessed: 13 February 2008. "Benham Place, recently called Benham Valence, is the seat of Sir Richard Sutton, bart." However, by 1924, he had died, and the house was the seat of his uncle Sir Arthur Sutton.</ref> Sir Richard Lexington Sutton sold Benham Park and {{convert|140|acres}} in 1982.<ref>Richard Jinman. [https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/mar/23/eu.ruralaffairs "A cup of tea but tight lips in historic landowner's fiefdom"] ''The Guardian'', Wednesday 23 March 2005</ref>
The building was converted into offices in 1983<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/benham_park.html |title=Berkshire History: Benham Park |website=Berkshire History}}</ref> by the IT company Norsk Data, who used it as their headquarters for European operations (outside Norway), until the company's dissolution in 2003, with large parts being acquired by 2e2.<ref>[https://www.telecompaper.com/news/2e2-plans-around-gbp70-mil-aim-flotation--442104] 2e2 plans around GBP70 mil Aim flotation</ref> Then it was home to 2e2, an ICT lifecycle services provider, until 2012 when it dissolved.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2e2.com/contact-us/newbury.aspx |title=2e2 - Creating Business Advantage |access-date=27 July 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824060528/http://www.2e2.com/contact-us/newbury.aspx |archive-date=24 August 2011}}</ref> Also within the grounds were two office buildings built in the 1980s and these housed other companies such as mobile data solution provider CognitoIQ,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cognito-iq.com/location-map.html |title=Location Map |access-date=26 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130619185503/http://www.cognito-iq.com/location-map.html |archive-date=19 June 2013}}</ref> Exony and Idox, all of which have now moved to other premises as the phases comprising the office block were demolished.
[[Image:Gates to Benham Valence - geograph.org.uk - 6226.jpg|thumb|Gates to Benham Valence, originally at Hamstead Marshall]]
==See also== *Grade II* listed buildings in Berkshire
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category-inline}}
{{Norsk Data}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Country houses in Berkshire Category:West Berkshire District Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Berkshire Category:Grade I listed buildings in Berkshire Category:Norsk Data Category:Gardens by Capability Brown