A visit to the Basing House

I have always wanted to blog about Basing House, a historical ruin that we had visited a month ago, but never had the time to do so. With a few things off my sleeve now, I am eager to briefly blog about it.

Basing House was basically a habitation (sort of like a village), started since the Iron Age. Houses were built out of mud and the village was surrounded with a moat to keep away enemies. It flourished over the hundreds of years until the 4th century, AD. It survived several invasions including from the Romans and Saxons. In 1066 William the Conqueror gave the Basing manor to his supporter, Hugh de Port whom begun the building of a castle made of flint and stone.

Basing House changed hands until the 16th century and it was renovated and added a new house. It had been dubbed the 'largest private house ever', even larger than the King's palaces. It had seen the Civil War in 1643 and was attacked 3 times after which the buildings were sacked and caught fire. In 1740, these were demolished. In 1870s the archeological work began and the council bought the ruins in 1972.

..And you thought archeological work only had begun in the earlier 20th centuries!


This is the artist's impression of the Basing House during its last hours.Note the size of the area.


The Gun of Basing House.The canon that they had used during the Civil War.


The area is a massive green field, with ruins here and there. Food and drinks are allowed inside and visitors are encouraged to picnic.


Cess Pit. Mind you, this used to be the toilet cubicles. They had timber planks for the seats. Very basic, but ewww!!


One of the remaining building. It could have been the guards' or servants residence for it's located on the margin of a long brick wall.


This maze was constructed and identically copied from the original, exactly where the authentic garden would have been located. Love the towers at the corners.


Wide angle view of the main site.This is the main entrance to the 'new' Basing House, leading to the owners'residence. It comprised of a basement kitchen where thousands of breads were cooked daily, an underground prison, several wells, an adequate chamber toilet, a great hall equipped with wine cellar and of course stately rooms.

After exploring every corner (it was a huge area to cover, although there seemed to be nothing much worthy of anything spectacular,unless, if you appreciate historical ruins) DH and Little One chased one another and raced each other to the exit. It was indeed an enjoyable outing. And I, I was too tired and wished we had more digital storage on our camera.