Lower Basildon is a small English village in the
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
of
Basildon
Basildon ( ) is the largest town in the borough of Basildon, within the county of Essex, England. It has a population of 107,123. In 1931 the parish had a population of 1159.
It lies east of Central London, south of the city of Chelmsford and ...
, near
Pangbourne
Pangbourne is a large village and civil parish on the River Thames in Berkshire, England. Pangbourne has its own shops, schools, a railway station on the Great Western main line and a village hall. Outside its grouped developed area is an in ...
, in the county of
Berkshire
Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...
.
Amenities
Shops and restaurants
Upper Basildon has a sub-post office (located in St Stephen's Church) and a pub-restaurant, ''The Red Lion''. Lower Basildon currently has a garage/shop and a motor repair business.
Transport
The village is covered only by a Tuesday bus service running between
Goring-on-Thames
Goring-on-Thames (or Goring) is a village and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about south of Wallingford and northwest of Reading. It had a population of 3,187 in the 2011 census, put at 3,335 in 2019. Goring ...
and Reading. The nearest railway station is
Goring and Streatley (2.6 miles, 4.2 km), which offers stopping trains between
Didcot
Didcot ( ) is a railway town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire and the historic county of Berkshire. Didcot is south of Oxford, east of Wantage and north west of Reading. The town is noted for its railway heritage, Di ...
and
London Paddington
Paddington, also known as London Paddington, is a London station group, Central London railway terminus and London Underground station complex, located on Praed Street in the Paddington area. The site has been the London terminus of services pro ...
. The main
A329 road
A3, A03 or A.III may refer to:
* A3 paper, a paper size defined by ISO 216
Biology
* A3 regulatory sequence, a sequence for the insulin gene
* Adenosine A3 receptor, a human gene
* Annexin A3, a human gene
* ATC code A03 ''Drugs for functi ...
connects the village with Goring and Reading.
Beale Wildlife Park
To the south-east of the village there is a wildlife garden,
Beale Park
Beale Wildlife Park is situated by the River Thames, between the villages of Pangbourne and Lower Basildon in Berkshire, England. It has three main areas of attraction: collections of small exotic animals, farm animals and birds; landscaped garde ...
.
Historic buildings
St Bartholomew's Church
The 15th century
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
of
St Bartholomew
Bartholomew (Aramaic: ; grc, Βαρθολομαῖος, translit=Bartholomaîos; la, Bartholomaeus; arm, Բարթողիմէոս; cop, ⲃⲁⲣⲑⲟⲗⲟⲙⲉⲟⲥ; he, בר-תולמי, translit=bar-Tôlmay; ar, بَرثُولَماو ...
stands at the end of Church Lane, down by the River Thames.
Roman villa
The remains of a modest
Roman villa
A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house built in the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions.
Typology and distribution
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) distinguished two kinds of villas n ...
were discovered near the church in 1839 during the construction of the
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...
but nothing of the villa remains to be seen today. It housed two beautiful
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
floors, which were unfortunately destroyed very soon after being found. A drawing of one was made by the antiquarian,
Charles Roach Smith
Charles Roach Smith (20 August 1807 – 2 August 1890), FSA, was an English antiquarian and amateur archaeologist who was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the London Numismatic Society. He was a founding member of ...
.
[
]
6-12 Reading Road
The village is well known locally for the presence of a row of early 20th century timber-framed 'black-and-white' houses on its western side. However, only one of these possesses a true timber frame. The remainder are built of brick, and clad with timber to resemble framing. These had been specifically commissioned as workers' cottages for Basildon Park.[
]
Basildon Grotto
Basildon Grotto, or The Grotto House, is located to the west of the village on the road to Streatley. The original Grotto was built in 1720 and consisted of a rock chamber filled with shells and a rock pool. This summer house was extended at the beginning of the 19th century by Arthur Smith MP to form a large mansion. Until about 2007, it was the headquarters of the Institute for Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM). Although sold to a new owner, it remains empty, fire-damaged and ruinous.
Basildon Park
The National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
property, Basildon Park, occupies the space between the villages of Lower and Upper Basildon
Upper Basildon is a small village in the civil parish of Basildon (where the United Kingdom 2011 Census population is included), near to Pangbourne, in the English county of Berkshire. It has a church, dedicated to St. Stephen, built in 1964 i ...
.[
]
Notable people
In birth order:
* Jethro Tull (1674–1741), agriculturalist, was born in Upper Basildon and buried in the churchyard of St Bartholomew's Church in Lower Basildon, under a modern gravestone dated 1740, though he died in 1741.[
*]Sir Francis Sykes, 1st Baronet
Sir Francis Sykes, 1st Baronet (1732–1804) was an English country landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1771 and 1804. He was sometime Governor of Kasimbazar in India, being styled an English nabob by his peers. ...
(1732–1804), British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...
governor, landowner and politician, lived in Basildon, but died before his mansion was completed.
* Graham Whitehead (1922–1981), Formula 1 motor racing driver, died in Basildon.
References
External links
Village Website for Upper and Lower Basildon
{{authority control
Villages in Berkshire
West Berkshire District