Basing House

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Entrance gate to the ruins of the Basing House

Basing House is the ruin of a Tudor palace and castle in the village of Old Basing in the English county of Hampshire . In size and wealth it was comparable to the Hampton Court Palace . Today only its foundation walls and earthworks are preserved. The ruins are listed by English Heritage as Grade II Historic Buildings and are a Scheduled Monument .

history

William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester , the Lord High Treasurer of King Edward VI. , Queen Maria and Queen Elizabeth I , had Basing House built as a new palace from 1531.

In its final form, Basing House consisted of two connected houses. The Old House replaced the donjon of an older ring-work castle. So it was inside the earthworks and walls, while the somewhat younger New House was outside these defenses. A bridge and a doorway connected the two buildings through the defenses, a connection that proved fatal to Basing House in the decisive battle. Together, both houses had 360 rooms. They were five stories high and were considered by many contemporaries to be the grandest private house in the country.

In the first half of the 1630s the house was locked and the windows boarded up while the family moved to other houses that they owned. The entertainment of the 4th Marquess almost ruined the family financially; the maintenance of the house was neglected and such a large, brick- built (at the time somehow experimental) complex caused problems with brown rot , rot , broken windows, leaky roofs and the heating of the various wings after 100 years . When the 5th Marquess inherited his title, he downsized the house, moved the family out, and waited for the proceeds from his extensive estates across England to begin a restoration later that decade.

The Siege of Basing House

At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642 Basing House belonged to John Paulet, 5th Marquess of Winchester , the King Charles I supported. Therefore the parliamentarians besieged Basing House three times, whereby the royalists broke the siege twice.

The last siege began in August 1645 when Colonel John Dalbier and 800 men pulled up around the walls of the palace. The garrison held out despite further reinforcement of the siege force until Oliver Cromwell advanced with heavy siege equipment. On October 13, 1645, the siege army took the '' New House '' and broke through the defenses of the '' Old House ''. The last storm came over the bridge between the two houses. Many valuable goods were removed and a fire destroyed the building. As with other buildings that were destroyed at the time, the building blocks of Basing House were auctioned off. The residents of the village were encouraged to replace the wattle walls in their homes with bricks from Basing House or to build new houses using brick.

John Paulet's lands were confiscated and he himself locked up in the Tower of London on charges of treason . The charges were later dropped and the Basing House property was returned to King Charles II . His son, Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton , regained wealth as a result of his support for William of Orange in the Glorious Revolution . He used this wealth to demolish the fire ruins of Basing House and to build a new house in Hackwood. The history of the property prior to the construction of the Basing House is unknown.

Location

The ruins of Basing House are in the village of Old Basing, approximately one mile east of downtown Basingstoke . They lie on the upper reaches of the River Loddon . Due to the limited space in Old Basing, the parking lot for the ruins is a few hundred meters away. A riverside path leads from the parking lot to the ruins.

The former Basingstoke Canal also ran around Basing House and through parts of Old Basing.

Access

The extensive ruins of Basing House are open to the public. The entrance to the ruins has been significantly rebuilt. There is now a ticket sale, a café and an exhibition in an extension to the barn. With the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund , a number of improvements and renovations have been made in recent years.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Images of England: Basing House Ruins . English Heritage. Archived from the original on October 22, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 3, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.imagesofengland.org.uk
  2. ^ Basing House . Hampshire Cultural Trust. Archived from the original on July 15, 2015. Retrieved on December 3, 2015.
  3. ^ CAP Studios staff: Hackwood House . CAP Studios. 2012. Accessed December 3, 2015.

Web links

Commons : Basing House, Hampshire  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 16 '7.4 "  N , 1 ° 3' 8.9"  W.