The garden at Basildon Park

Visitors walking in the grounds in autumn at Basildon Park, Berkshire, climbing stone steps beside large shrubs showing autumn colour, as are the trees — Visitors walking in the grounds in autumn at Basildon Park, Berkshire | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Created as a pleasure ground in the 1800s, falling into ruin in the early 1900s, and lovingly restored by the Iliffes in the 1950s, the garden at Basildon Park has had its ups and downs. Find out what you can enjoy in the gardens today, including a rose garden, Italian terrace and historic trees.

Autumn in the garden

Autumn in the gardens is all about colours, soil care, and preparation for Winter. Green manure makes the beds cosy for the upcoming cold. As leaves begin falling, they’re collected and repurposed as mulch. The fiery transformation of the European spindle tree (Euonymus europaeus) as its leaves turn red and its pink and orange fruit ripen into snacks for the local starlings is a seasonal treat. You’ll also see the deep-pink blooms of ‘Autumn Joy’ (Sedum spectabile) which provide vital nourishment to pollinators as resources become scarce in colder months.

The pleasure grounds

Around the rear of the mansion, you’ll find the pleasure grounds. Trees and evergreen shrubs frame the pleasure grounds and views over the park and countryside.

Lady Iliffe’s rose garden

One of the Iliffes’ additions to the pleasure grounds in the 1960s was the rose garden, which really comes to life in the spring and summer months with a mix of old roses, peonies and spring bulbs reflecting Lady Iliffe’s original planting design.

Tall purple flowers in flowerbeds and tress with autumn colour in the garden at Basildon Park, Berkshire — Autumn colour in the garden at Basildon Park, Berkshire | © National Trust Images/James Dobson

Terrace

A formal Italianate terrace, built of large stone blocks, encloses a formal lower lawn and gives wide-ranging views over the Thames Valley hills. The terrace is located at the rear of the mansion and was built in 1850 as part of the pleasure grounds creation, to complement the central block of the mansion.

Umbrello Seat

The thatched umbrello you can see within the pleasure grounds, was created in the mid-1990s, based on a design by the garden’s original designer JB Papworth.

The umbrello would once have been the centre of a round, formal Victorian rose garden with large, dense evergreen trees forming a backdrop to the flowering borders. It would have been a quiet place for people to sit and relax in, perhaps enjoying some tea.

Today, two of the evergreen plants remain from the original garden: the maritime pine (Pinus pinaster), and the Lawson cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana).