After many years of being covered by vegetation, the old ruins of Benfield Farm have been uncovered and the ground scraped, leaving the old flint walls visible from the public footpath. I think the barn is listed, but perhaps not the old flint walls.
Decline after the war
The farm was connected to Hangleton Manor but went into decline following WWII, its fate was finally sealed when the Hangleton Valley estate was built in the early 1960’s. Gradually vegetation took over covering and damaging all the old buildings except the listed barn which is still in use today. Taking into account only the barn is listed I’m not sure what will happen to the other remains. More about Benfield Farm can be found on the James Gray site, with photos showing when it was still in use.
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Having lived in B&H all my life [73+ years!]I had never visited Benfield Farm…until this morning. What a nice spot, and even better to find the huge flint barn has a little cafe within. I had a walk around the nearby Benfield Valley Local Nature Reserve which is also worth a visit; nothing grand here just a pleasant bit of ‘wild’ in the city urban fringe, with different glades and copses, open spaces and grassy slopes.
There was [is?] a housing threat to this open space which would be a very bad idea.
Hello all,
I don’t know if there’s anyone out there that can help but I’m looking for photographs of the barn and curtilage listed walls circa 1973.
If anyone can help you may help save a heritage asset that is under threat from developers.
Thank you.
Paul.
Hi Paul,
Try looking on the James Gray Collection of period images kept by the Regency Society, there may be some that help there. Hove Library has a very good local studies collection as well.
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