Hall Place (Bentworth)

Hall Place
Hall Place in 2012
Location within Hampshire
General information
Location	Bentworth, Hampshire
Country	England
Coordinates	51°09′19″N 1°03′11″W / 51.1552°N 1.0530°W / 51.1552; -1.0530
Completed	Early 14th century

Hall Place (alternate: Hall Farm; formerly Bentworth Manor House or Bentworth Hall) is a manor house in the parish of Bentworth in Hampshire, England. It is about 300m SW of Bentworth Church and 3.6 miles (5.8 km) NW of Alton, the nearest town. Built in the early 14th century, it is a Grade II listed building. It is a medieval hall-house, known by various names through the centuries. It is 0.5 miles (0.80 km) from the current Bentworth Hall that was built in 1832.

In the 1086 Domesday Survey that was ordered by the first Norman king, William the Conqueror, Bentworth is listed as a parish in the Domesday entry for the Hundred of Odiham. Soon after Domesday, Bentworth became an independent manor in its own right. In about 1111 it was given by King Henry I "Beauclerc", the youngest son of William the Conqueror, together with four other English manors, to the diocese of Rouen and Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. When King John began losing his possessions in Normandy he took back the ownership of many manors, including Bentworth. He then temporarily ceded the manor of Bentworth in 1207–8 to the Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches. It was John who signed Magna Carta in June 1215 at Runnymede, staying at Odiham castle 10 km north-east of Bentworth the night before. However, the manor was returned to the Archbishops of Rouen, who successively held the manor until 1316, when Edward II appointed Peter de Galicien custodian of the manor in that year.