Benton End is thought to have been built in the 1520s. The first documented inhabitant was Robert Rolfe, a cloth merchant and "chief inhabitant" of Hadleigh. Although later alterations have seen the house partly plastered and bay windows added, the original late-medieval timber structure with brick nogging remains intact and visible in parts of the house, including the current main entrance.
Notable owners and residents
Parliamentarian John Bourchier inherited Benton End in 1627 after marrying into the Rolfe family.
Botanist Adam Buddle may have grown up in the house, as his father inherited the house from his uncle the owner in 1686. Buddle was known as an expert in bryophytes, and the genus Buddleja was named in his honour.
Artist and horticulturalist Cedric Morris lived at Benton End from 1939 to his death in 1982.
Cedric Morris and his partner Arthur Lett-Haines acquired Benton End in 1939 after fire destroyed the previous site of their art school in Dedham, Essex. Benton End afforded space for Morris, Lett-Haines and many of their students to live as well as work at the school. This contributed to the communal atmosphere and encouraged its laissez-faire but inspiring approach to learning. Jon Lys Turner's biography of the illustrator Richard Chopping and his partner Denis Wirth-Miller, both alumni of the East Anglian School, characterises it as
Cedric Morris' garden
Morris grew rare and exotic plants at Benton End, which he collected on expeditions to the Mediterranean and North Africa and in many cases introduced to cultivation in Britain for the first time. He planted them in an idiosyncratic style which admirers have viewed as an extension of his work as a painter: Beth Chatto described the garden as a "bewildering, mind-stretching, eye-widening canvas of colour, textures and shapes". He was most prolific as a cultivator of irises; he grew around 1,000 varieties, and bred up to 90 cultivars of his own. His rose Rosa 'Sir Cedric Morris' and poppy Papaver orientale 'Cedric Morris' are both widely commercially available. The garden Morris created, and the plants he grew, influenced many important figures in British horticulture. Constance Spry displayed rhubarb from his garden in her London shop, and Vita Sackville-West, a frequent visitor to Benton End, grew his irises at Sissinghurst. Most significantly, Morris became a mentor to Beth Chatto, who said that a large proportion of the plants in her gardens came from Benton End. Sarah Cook, a former head gardener at Sissinghurst, who grew up in Hadleigh, is leading a project to track down, preserve and record all Cedric Morris' surviving introductions. Many of these were distributed to other horticulturalists after Morris' death by Jenny Robinson, whom Morris appointed as his horticultural executor. In 2015 Sarah Cook showed 25 Cedric Morris irises at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Present day
The house has been acquired by the Pinchbeck Charitable Trust, which hopes to restore Morris' garden and establish the house as an education centre in art and horticulture, as well as a memorial to Morris.
