Photos from walk on Thursday 14th September from Goring to Whitchurch

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The Chiltern Way, climbing out of Goring looking west over the Thames and the railway line.

 

Yellow train

 

Green train

 

The “new build” in the centre is West Lodge. Several existing buildings were demolished and this “2 storey” building received planning permission in 2022.

 

To the left is “The Grotto”, Streatley.

 

The Grotto House or Basildon Grotto was built in 1720 by Viscount Fane of Basildon Park for his wife Lady Mary Fane who was a Maid of Honour for Queen Anne. The original much smaller house was attached to a ‘grotto’ elaborately decorated with shells and an adjoining ‘rock room’ for Lady Fane’s ‘retirement and pleasure’.

 

After the Basildon estate was sold to the Sykes family in 1771, the original Basildon Park manor house was torn down and The Grotto House was substantially altered and expanded in size – although this involved the dismantling and removal of the original shell grotto that gave the house it’s name. The Sykes family, who had built a new house on the site of the former Basildon Park Manor then leased the extended Grotto House to various families over the ensuing years. When the last member of the Sykes family died in 1875, the house was bought by a long term tenant Arthur Smith who subsequently became the High Sheriff of Berkshire.

 

It remained a family home until 1953 when the last occupiers sold it to the Institute of Park & Recreation Administration (later known as ILAM – Institute of Leisure Amenity Management) who used it as their head offices and training college. It stayed in use until around 2007 when ILAM left the premises and it was sold to a new owner. It appeared that they started work on the building at some point as the end of one of the wings is stripped right back to bare brick, however it doesn’t appear to have gotten off the ground and I presume it was after the work stopped that the steel shutters went up over every floor except the very top.

 

Inside it is obvious that a lot of the damage done to the fabric of the building was done when there was work being undertaken on it, all the pipework and plumbing has been removed and there are various holes knocked here and there but it’s still surprisingly solid inside with no rotten floors to speak of. On wandering around it really did remind me of Lillesden in terms of the general condition, internal colours and architecture – the building is a proper maze with stairs going off in all sorts of random directions to different areas with all the extensions added over the years. [source]

 

The new owner was a James Hull who purchased the estate in 2008 with the intention to return the property into a home, which proved unviable, and so the property has since sat vacant and was in a “poor state of repair”. The site is now a joint venture between Hull and SUSD, who later applied for permission to convert the site inot a hotel and a spa. The promotional website still exists.

 

However, the buidling was badly damaged in a fire which raged overnight between Friday and Saturday, March 5/6. 2021. And there it still is.

 

Apparently it is referenced in Phillip Pullman’s La Belle Sauvage

 

Ladybird on greater knapweed seed head (maybe)

 

Beech canopy in Great Chalk Wood

 

At coffee, on Stuart’s shirt, a Robber fly (Tolmerus)

 

On the nettles, a spider, possibly a wolf spider (Lycosidae)

 

Ivy growths were buzzing with bees, bumble bees and flies, and this critter, larger than most, is probably a European hornet (Vespa crabro). It didn’t stay to pose for a better photo.

 

At lunch, in the brambles, a spider. Species unkown.

 

Room with a view over the Thames. A Type 22 pill box. Leaves and soil building up inside the entrance. And I’m told there is a bench mark on the front. Probably a bit unreliable, given the way many pillbox have a habit of sinking into the Thames [link]

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