Benington is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the

East Hertfordshire East Hertfordshire is one of ten Non-metropolitan district, local government districts in Hertfordshire, England. Its council is based in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire. The largest town in the district is Bishop's Stortford, and th ...

district of

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

, England, about four miles east of

Stevenage Stevenage ( ) is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, about north of London. Stevenage is east of junctions 7 and 8 of the A1(M), between Letchworth Garden City to the north and Welwyn Garden City to the south. In 1946, Stevenage w ...

and 35 miles north of London.

History

There are two theories regarding the naming of the village. One comes from Saxon times and is derived from the name of the river to the west of the village - the Beane. The middle syllable 'ing' is common in place names all over south-east England and means 'people', Benington therefore meaning ''The Town of the Beane Folk''. The second view is that Benington is a corruption of the name 'Belinton' which appears in the Domesday Book. This is thought to mean the town of Bela's people, after the name of the man who led the first group of immigrants to the area.

Population

According to the 2001 census it had a population of 922. At the 2011 Census the population had reduced to 908.

Economy

The village has a strong farming history, and much of the surrounding countryside is still agricultural.

Transport

The village has an airstrip to the south south west—Position: N51°52.95 W000°07.37 The village is served by a local bus route, number 384, between Stevenage and Hertford, which additionally links it to Walkern, Dane End, and Tonwell.

Local facilities

It has two churches *Saint Peter's Church of England, a

Grade I listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

building. The churchyard contains 2 war memorials in the form of a cross (unlisted) and a

lychgate A lychgate (from Old English ''līc'', corpse) or resurrection gate is a covered gateway found at the entrance to a traditional English or English-style churchyard. Examples also exist outside the British Isles in places such as Newfoundland, the ...

(

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

listed). *Benington Methodist Church There is also a primary school (Benington Church of England Primary School) and two public houses (the Lordship Arms and the Bell). The Bell is a late medieval hall house, listed grade II*. The Old Tower is a former Victorian water tower, now converted as a private residence.

Benington Lordship

Benington Lordship is a Georgian manor house which is situated to the west of the village. The grounds surrounding the house stretch over seven acres and also feature the remains of Benington Castle (a Norman

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

castle). The gardens of Benington Lordship are well known for their

snowdrop ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leav ...

s and views over the surrounding Hertfordshire countryside. The gardens also feature a Victorian folly, kitchen garden, contemporary sculptures, carp pond, wildlife areas and rose gardens.

Nature reserve

Benington High Wood is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

In popular culture

The 2009

psychological horror Psychological horror is a genre, subgenre of horror fiction, horror and psychological fiction with a particular focus on mental, emotional, and Mental state, psychological states to frighten, disturb, or unsettle its audience. The subgenre freque ...

found footage

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

and

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

'' No Through Road'' by Steven Chamberlain follows four seventeen-year-old teenagers en-route to

who find themselves trapped in a

time loop The time loop or temporal loop is a plot device in fiction whereby Character (arts), characters re-experience a span of time which is repeated, sometimes more than once, with some hope of breaking out of the cycle of repetition. Time loops are co ...

along two

road signs Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduc ...

marking an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

between Benington and Watton.

References

External links

Benington Village website
{{authority control Villages in Hertfordshire Civil parishes in Hertfordshire East Hertfordshire District