This is Bentleys, our home in Woodham Walter, Essex. When we bought the property in 1979 it was two dilapidated farm labourer cottages built by the local land owner in 1934. We converted it into one house during 1980 and a garage and further rooms were added some five years later. The porch was built in 1999 although its plans had been drawn some fifteen years earlier and the block paved drive was completed in 2000. The site has been occupied for many centuries, the land was enclosed in 1716 by a Robert Cracknell (179 and 180 on the Tythe map below) and the Chapman and Andre map of 1777 clearly shows a house and the current pond, Guys Farm is at the end of our road and the area was known as Guys Green. The name ‘Bentleys’ comes from a John Bentley who lived at the site in 1781 with his wife Mary Wakelin, he was recorded in 1819 as a person receiving poor relief but did not appear in the 1821 census, during this same period, in 1793, another cottage was erected on the site by John Flanders and called Shepherds Hall (181 below). The Tythe map of 1845 shows William Davies as the owner, he had purchased the property from William Bentley, presumably the son of John. Ten other people owned the property between 1845 and our purchase in 1979. Bentleys is situated about a mile outside the village of Woodham Walter and two miles away from the town of Maldon. You can reach us by phone at 44(0)1621 855354 or at our e-mail address: peter@peter1.info