Lower Basildon is a small English village in the civil parish of Basildon, near Pangbourne, in the county of Berkshire.
Amenities Shops and restaurants Upper Basildon has a sub-post office (located in St Stephen's Church) and a pub-restaurant, The Red Lion.Basildon, West Berkshire site. Retrieved 8 May 2014. 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 and Reading. The nearest railway station is Goring and Streatley () which offers stopping trains between Didcot and London Paddington. The main A329 road 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 Park site. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
Historic buildings St Bartholomew's Church The 15th century parish church of St Bartholomew stands at the end of Church Lane, down by the River Thames.
Roman villa The remains of a modest Roman villa were discovered near the church in 1839 during the construction of the Great Western Railway but nothing of the villa remains to be seen today. It housed two beautiful mosaic floors, which were unfortunately destroyed very soon after being found. A drawing of one was made by the antiquarian, Charles Roach Smith.
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.Christopher Winn: I Never Knew That about the River Thames (London: Ebury Press, 2010), p. 79. 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 Parish Plan draft Retrieved 8 May 2014.Retrieved 17 August 2020.
Basildon Park
The National Trust property, Basildon Park, occupies the space between the villages of Lower and Upper Basildon.
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 (1732–1804), British East India Company 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 Royal Berkshire History: Basildon