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It is said that the founder of
the Scouting movement, Lord Baden-Powell wdesigned of the village
sign in the shape of a large book as an entry into a competition
in the Daily Mail in 1923, Baden-Powell lived at Pax Hill till
1938 and then left the country for Kenya on his retirement. Though
the sign now is different it has some interesting information on
it, and ''Wilim ye Archer of ye Green by ye Forest' proudly stands
guard.
A century ago the hamlet (as it is still not
large enough to be classed as a village) was all narrow roads and
agriculture played an important part and entertainment wasin the
form of two village pubs and a third by the railway station. Today
the village still consists of narrow roads and agriculture is
still the main commodity but there is now only the one pub, "The
Star". . The Red Lion closed down in the early
70s and the other closely followed.The reason for the closures was
mainly the demise of the customers and also the closing down of the b
ranch line from Bordon Camp which carried servicemen to the "Railway
Arms" right outside the station.
A few hundred yards from the Star and
between the village shop and playing fields you will find the village
pond which is a haven for ducks, coots and a lot of other wild life.
Bentley itself is situated in the top
North east corner of Hampshire and lies about five miles north east of
Alton laying away from the Farnham Road and set in the meadows of the
River Wey. The church was built between 1130 and 1140 but there is a lot
of work from the 13th century and a finely carved Norman arch which
separates the chancel from the north chapel. The Altar rails are early
Jacobean and there is also a priest's seat which is also interesting.
There is now a thriving small
business complex to give some work to the population, the Bentley
Business Park, and also the Bentley Industrial Centre.
The village shop though has been kept
in the same family now for around 60 years, and today the customers seem
a lot younger every day that passes and some of the long standing
families of the villages are now gone and are replaced not only by their
descendents but by those families who are lucky enough to escape from
the rapidly growing densely populate urban areas.
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Bab's Field was the first of the
small housing developments in the village, built just after the end of
WWII as part of the governments council house programme and recently new
private developments have been completed at Weybank and Eggar's Field.
Bentley got its name from the Olde English beonet-leah which means "clearing overgrown with bent' bent was a type of
grass).
The Domesday Book records a manor
that belonged to William the Archer but it is not the one here at
Bentley but at Mottisfont near Romsey. And this shows that William the
Archer has no connection with this Bentley
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| The Church Norman
Unique. Though parts of the church are indeed Norman they are in no
way unique. Avenue of Yews
probably originated when Bentley supplied an Archer to
the King each year. |
Just to the north of Bentley ran what
was called the Tin Highway which was a route that the Phoenicians from
Cornwall carried the tin to Thannet. One of Britains oldest Roads the
Harrow Way is nearby which ran from the West Country to Kent and may be
the same road as the Tin Highway.
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evidence that points to the Phoenicians ever being in Cornwall and
collecting tin and if they were why take it to Thanet?
The
Pilgrims Way from Winchester to Canterbury ran past Coldrey House
and Holy Well near to the church but not near enough for the
pilgrims to make a detour to it for prayer.
There have been Roman
pavements found at Coldrey and also at Barley Pound and at Barley
Pound Farm a mosaic path was discovered in 1817 Roman
buildings were also discovered at Coldrey which was believed to
have been an Ancient Norman fort or castle.
Gilbert White the naturalist visited
his brother at at Marelands in 1793 just before he died. Today the
Queen Victoria Stone stands on the site of Malefactors Cage and Stocks
and an obelisk is near some cottages which are named The Cage.
The Romans were in Bentley two years
before they invaded the rest of the country and the Anglo Saxon
Chronicle shows that at Alton 'then came there against them the men
of Hampshire and fought against them' in AD 1001. And by 1086 the
Normans held Bentley.
The church was restored in 1400 and
the registers began in 1563. The first register records that in 1643
Basing House was attacked by parliamentarian troops following an
inspection of Bentley Green by Sir Walter (William Waller).
(The Star Inn pictured
right)
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| The school which
has been drastically modernised |
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The Red Lion
House |
The laws of the land were severe at
this time and the use of the Common Prayer book was not allowed for
baptism, marriages and funerals. A marriage had to take place in front
of a Justice of the Peace, though most couples did have a religious
ceremony a little while later.
Bentley gave the lives of 131 men out
of a population of 672 to world War One and out of these 23 did not
return.
The Second World war 16 men died in
action and the church has a memorial which was unveiled by
Viscount Montgomery in 1949, which records their names
But a most modern rise to fame and
something which has really put the village on the map was a television
series called The Village, and Bentley was chosen as the main star! A
lot of the villagers appeared as themselves in the programme including
the village policeman, shopkeeper and the landlord of the Star.
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