Bentley
Bentley is a hamlet between Alton and Farnham nestling a shallow valley of the River Wey. The main road between the towns used to run through the village until a bypass was built in 1995.
It developed as an agricultural community and retains much of that character today. The village church dates from the 12th century, but may be on the site of an earlier Saxon church. The village shop has been in the same family for almost 60 years and now involves the third and fourth generations of the family still serving the local community.
Bentley has many famous connections. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, who lived at Pax Hill in Bentley for 20 years from 1919. Jane Austen lived nearby in Chawton, and her brother Henry, the Reverend Henry Thomas Austen, was Perpetual Curate of Bentley from 1824 to 1838. More recently Bentley was the subject of “The Village” TV series on Meridian.
The name “Bentley” means grass clearing in a forest – in this case meaning the Alice Holt Forest and it is bounded on one side by the river Wey.
Bentley and Binsted village website (opens in a new window)
