Basing House

Basing House was a grand Tudor palace and castle in the Hampshire village of Old Basing. Built from 1531 for William Paulet, the 1st Marquess of Winchester, it once matched Hampton Court in size and splendour. The house combined two linked structures: the older ‘Old House’ inside earthwork defences and the later ‘New House’ outside them. A bridge and gateway connected the two, a feature that played a part in its downfall. Today only parts of the basement, foundations and earthworks remain, protected as a Grade II listed building and scheduled monument. The house witnessed visits from three Tudor monarchs. Edward VI stayed in 1552, Elizabeth I came three times and hunted deer with French nobles. James I and Anne of Denmark also visited, with dancing and betrothals recorded. By the 1630s the family had moved out, leaving the house to decay. During the English Civil War it became a Royalist stronghold besieged three times, finally falling to Cromwell’s forces in October 1645. Visitors walk through 14-acre grounds beside the River Loddon to reach the ruins. Parts of the basement survive, showing brick doorways, bread ovens, salt alcoves and vaulted roofs. A vaulted tunnel and traces of original plaster and mortar can still be seen. The site is reached by a riverside path from a car park. The remains stand as quiet evidence of a once-great palace, its story told through the stone and earth left behind.