Basildon Park

Basildon Park is a country house in Berkshire, two miles south of Goring-on-Thames and Streatley. It stands between the villages of Upper Basildon and Lower Basildon on land once owned by the Fane family. The present house was built between 1776 and 1783 for Sir Francis Sykes in the Palladian style, with interiors in the later neoclassical Adamesque manner. The estate passed through several owners, was used as a convalescent hospital in the First World War, and requisitioned for military purposes in the Second World War. After near-dereliction, it was rescued in the mid-20th century by Lord and Lady Iliffe, who gave it to the National Trust in 1978. The house is worth visiting for its layered history and fine architecture. Sir Francis Sykes made his fortune in Bengal as a nabob and returned to England to build a grand seat near London. His political ambitions shaped the house, though financial troubles and scandal followed him and his family. Later owners let the house to tenants including Benjamin Disraeli, who stayed as a guest and later used the setting in his novel Henrietta Temple. The interiors reflect changing tastes from Palladian beginnings to Adamesque refinement. Visitors find a Grade I listed mansion with restored principal rooms and surviving Gothic lodges from an earlier house. The Adamesque interiors include plasterwork and joinery added after the Sykes period. Outside, the parkland stretches between the two Basildon villages, with views across the Thames countryside. The house’s history is visible in the reused 14th-century chest tomb of Sir Francis Sykes in Lower Basildon churchyard.