The first known owner of Benthall Hall was the Anglo-Saxon, Anfrid de Benetala.

The first record of a house dates to 1250 when Philip de Benthall is recorded as allowing the nearby Buildwas Abbey the right to carry stone over his land. With no sons to inherit the property, Benthall was acquired in 1283 by Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells and Lord Chancellor of England.

The estate passed through the male line to William Benthall who started building the Hall in 1535 on the site of an earlier house. Further improvements were made c1580 by Lawrence Benthall.

Staunch Catholics, there are several priests’ hiding places throughout the house – and also look out for the five marks above the entrance which indicated that priests were welcome.

During the Civil War, the house was captured by Parliamentarians.

The family sold the house in 1844 and before successfully buying it back in 1934, the house was tenanted. Between 1860 and 1890, the botanist George Maw became the tenant. A Fellow of the Linnaean Society, the Society of Antiquariaes and the Royal Horticultural Society, he often travelled to the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe to collect bulbs. In 1871, Maw accompanied Sir Joseph Hooker to Morocco and the Atlas Mountains. Sadly, few of the bulbs Maw planted have survived.

In 1886, Maw published A Monograph of the Genus Crocus which he illustrated with his own watercolours. John Ruskin described his paintings as ‘the most exquisite and quite beyond criticism.’

Maw was a regular correspondent of Charles Darwin and Gertrude Jekyll. Jekyll wished they lived ‘within neighbourly distance’ and in 1886, Maw moved – to Kenley in Surrey, an hour’s drive from Munstead Wood.

Maw’s family business became the most successful floor tile producer in the world and in 1860s they won the contract for making terracotta plant labels for Kew Gardens.

Another tenant was Robert Bateman, the son of James Bateman (see Biddulph Grange).

Maw and Bateman made several changes to the house and garden. The dovecote in the Rose Garden was built by Robert.

Nearly demolished in 1934, Mary Clementina Dale, a descendant of William Benthall, bought the Hall for £6000. Clementina gave the Hall and gardens to the National Trust on condition that she and any successor could continue to live in the Hall. The family still live here.