The best family-friendly hikes and walks around Basildon

The Grade I listed, National Trust-owned Basildon House is a sensational country manor house located in Berkshire, between the villages of Upper Basildon and Lower Basildon. The mansion is surrounded by glorious parkland, including an impressive rose garden, created by Lady Iliffe and recently restored

This was once the stableyard for Basildon Park and now acts as a shop, café, and museum for visitors. There's a wonderful outdoor seating area where you can fuel up on cream teas and coffees as well as sausage rolls, soups and sandwiches.

Lovely area to visit

Great little area...hidden second hand book shop

The mansion was saved from almost certain demolition and lovingly revived by the Iliffes. Lord and Lady Iliffe revisited Carr's architectural designs, scouring house sales and auctions to find the perfect objects to bring the mansion back to life. The mansion is set in 400 acres of parkland.

Basildon Park is a country house situated 2 miles (3 kilometres) south of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley in Berkshire, between the villages of Upper Basildonand Lower Basildon. It is owned by the National Trustand is a Grade I listed building. The house was built between 1776 and 1783 for Sir Francis Sykes and designed by John Carr in the Palladian style at a time when Palladianism was giving way to the newly fashionable neoclassicism. Thus, the interiors are in a neoclassical "Adamesque" style. Never fully completed, the house passed through a succession of owners. In 1910 it was standing empty and in 1914, it was requisitioned by the British Government as an army convalescent hospital. It was again sold in 1928 and quickly sold again. In 1929, following a failed attempt to dismantle and rebuild the house in the USA, it was stripped of many of its fixtures and fittings and all but abandoned. During World War II, the house was again requisitioned and served as a barracks, a training ground for tanks, and finally a prisoner of war camp—all activities unsuited to the preservation of an already semi-derelict building. In 1952, a time when hundreds of British country houses were being demolished, it was said of Basildon Park "to say it was derelict, is hardly good enough, no window was left intact and most were repaired with cardboard or plywood." Today, Basildon Park is as notable for its mid-twentieth-century renaissance and restoration, by Lord and Lady Iliffe, as it is for its architecture. In 1978, the Iliffes gave the house, together with its park and a large endowment for its upkeep, to the National Trust in the hope that "The National Trust will protect it and its park for future generations to enjoy."

Originally the stableyard for the house it is now the entry gate for visitors and contains an exhibition room kitted out as a typical 1950s sitting room, complete with an apparently operating B/W television. Clock in stone surround above flanked by scrolled volutes. Basildon Park, The National burst, 1977.

In the 1960s Lady Iliffe created the Rose Garden with advice from Lanning Roper, a well-known American garden consultant. It contained a mix of old roses, peonies and spring bulbs when it was originally created. Sadly by 2011 perennial weeds had begun to take their toll on the mature rose garden. It was decided to clear the garden, rest and refresh the soil, and replant the garden with old roses replicating Lady Iliffe’s original design. Rosamundi The Rosamundi rose is a classic old rose that has beautiful light crimson semi-double blooms that are striped white. The Rosamundi is particulaly well known for it's rich frangrance, and can be spotted in the curved border of the Rose Garden. Compte de Chambord A rose also known as Madame Boll or Madame Knorr., this rose has large, full blooms of rich warm pink, as well as a strong fragrance. Spot the Compte de Chambord in the large curved border on the right hand side at the back of the Rose Garden. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/basildon-park/features/the-rose-garden-at-basildon-park