Old Manor House, Bedhampton

Bedhampton Manor was noted in the Domesday Book as being held by Hugh de Port from Hyde Abbey. Included in the summary were the church and 7 servants, two mills, and two salterns and a deer park – a prosperous property. Over the years it gained and decreased in value and passed from owner to owner, because it was often in the monarch’s gift. In the 14th century the Lord of the Manor was an absentee owner, so that the manor fell into disuse. In the 15th century the Manor became the property of the Cotton family until the 18th century when it became the property of the Cardonel family and by marriage eventually to the Dutton family, owners of Hinton Ampner. Gradually during the 19th and 20th centuries manor land was sold off. For example in 1912, the Dutton owner sold all the manor land north of Belmont, By that time land was more valuable for building than for farming. In the 20th century a later owner gained planning permission for 10 dwellings on the site of the manor house and garden, by that time much reduced in size. This threat of redevelopment was averted by the buying up of the manor house by the Manor Trust to provide for the elderly in Bedhampton.

The manor is in the traditional village situation, right beside the church near to the rectory, but now surrounded by modern buildings instead of meadows, evident in maps even as recent as the 1960s. It has preserved a carriage drive from Bidbury Lane, shown on 19th century maps, and has a rear garden which has retained its shape from before the 19th century. Part of the back garden is a productive vegetable garden. The house itself was altered in the Victorian era. The central and older part may clearly be seen on the eastern elevation, with Victorian wings. Perhaps the most interesting remainder from the 16th century is the rear wall, now walling the manor off from the car park. This wall contains a gateway of the same period as the wall itself.