Basildon Park, Reading, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.  

Late 18th country house surrounded by contemporary landscape park and woodland, elements having been designed by Lancelot Brown in 1778. Mid-19th century formal gardens lying adjacent to the house were laid out by the architect David Brandon with advice from William Andrews Nesfield and Edward Kemp.

 DESCRIPTION

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

Basildon Park lies 3 kilometres south of Goring and Streatley and 3 kilometres north-west of Pangbourne, above the south bank of the River Thames. The 130 hectare site is bounded mainly by a brick and flint wall, ruinous on the south boundary, and beyond this largely by agricultural land and woodland. The A329 Wantage to Reading road runs along the north-east boundary; beyond this, open meadows, crossed by the railway, run north to the river. A green lane runs along the west boundary, adjacent to Park Wood, extending south off the lane between Upper and Lower Basildon which forms the north-west boundary. The house is set at the east end of a plateau which runs through the centre of the park south-west to north-east, with valleys to the north and south. The land drops away to the east, down to the river valley, with panoramic views across the river to the wooded hillside beyond. The setting is largely agricultural, with the village of Lower Basildon adjacent to the north and beyond this, 1 kilometre north of the house, the parish church standing close to the river, probably visible from the house before mature trees obscured the view.

REFERENCES

Victoria History of the County of Berkshire 3, (1923), pp 457-61

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (1966), pp 76-8

D Stroud, Capability Brown (1975), p 216

Country Life, 161 (5 May 1977), pp 1158-61; (12 May 1977), pp 1227-30

In Search of English Gardens: The Travels of John Claudius Loudon and his wife Jane, (National Trust Classics 1990), pp 111-13

Basildon Park, guidebook, (National Trust 1995)

Maps

J Rocque, Map of Berkshire, 1761

T Pride, A topographical map of the Town of Reading and the County adjacent to an extent of 10 miles, 1790

Map of Basildon, 1843 (Berkshire Record Office)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition published 1877

    2nd edition revised 1913/14

OS 25" to 1 mile: 2nd edition published 1912

Description written: July 1998

Edited: March 2000