From the report:

" The site of the current Bentham Hill House estate was once within the Manor of Southborough (Borough of South), one of four boroughs forming the Manor of Tunbridge that was given to Richard de Fitzgilbert in the C11 in recognition of his part in the Norman Conquest (Hasted). Prior to this, although there is evidence of prehistoric activity around Southborough and use of the land as pasture for pigs, the area was sparsely populated (CAA). By the mid-C14, however, several settlements existed there and taxation records dated 1334 cite the names of Holden, Bentham and Bounds.
Until the middle of the 16th century, the valley to the east of Southborough was part of the royal forest of Southfrith, when its timber was cut for fuel for local iron smelting. To the forest’s west, Bentham Brooke, a tributary of the River Medway, is recorded on maps from the C16 (Saxton, Symonson, Parker) and by the mid-C18 its water was used first in the iron smelting industry and then in gunpowder manufacture, possibly based at Barden Furnace (Andrews, Dury and Herbert; Hasted). Further east along the Brooke’s course was C17 Bentham Farm, whose two mills were also used for this purpose (CAA; Mudge).
Fields directly south of Bentham Farm were in agricultural use until the early C19 when the vinegar manufacturer, Arthur Pott, later High Sheriff and Deputy-Lieutenant of Kent (London Gazette), bought approximately 30ha of land on which to build a house (Tithe Map). In 1830, he commissioned Decimus Burton, who was already working locally on the development of the Calverley Estate, Tunbridge Wells. The Tithe Map records a house and other buildings (Bentham Hill), pleasure gardens of 16a (6.5ha), a kitchen garden and farm buildings together with extensive woods, arable and pasture lands. In 1862, a stable block and three lodge houses are shown on the 1st edn OS map. After Pott’s death in 1877, his widow Frances remained at Bentham Hill and the estate continued in the family until the 1920s when it was sold to a William Harold Fleming.
During Fleming’s ownership the house was extended eastwards and changes were made to the garden on the east front (architect’s plans; 4th edn OS map). Bentham Hill House was used as a convalescent home during World War Two, following which it reverted to single private ownership until 1951. It was then
bought by Farringdon Reliance Mutual Insurance Society Ltd for re-development as eight flats and much of the surrounding lands and buildings was sold. Residents of Bentham Hill House bought the freehold from the developer in 1998 and the property remains in communal private ownership." (1)

<1> Barbara Simms, 2009, The Kent Compendium of Historic Parks and Gardens for Tunbridge Wells Borough:Bentham Hill House (Unpublished document). SKE16073.