Top Things to do in Reading
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Things to do in Reading, England: The Best Historic Sites
Discover the best top things to do in Reading, United Kingdom including Basildon Park, Silchester Roman City Walls and Amphitheatre, Greyfriars Church, Holy Trinity Church Theale, Pincents Hill, Surley Row Conservation Area.
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1. Basildon Park
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1,184 reviews
An 18th-century house, a 1950s homeThis is a story of grandeur created, dissolved and resurrected - not once, but twice.Basildon Park is an impressive Georgian mansion, surrounded by glorious parkland, which was lovingly rescued from ruin by Lord and Lady Iliffe in the mid 1950s. The house you see today is a re-creation and restoration of the 18th-century mansion. They restored the elegant interior and scoured the country salvaging 18th-century architectural fixtures and fittings. They filled their comfortable new home with fine paintings, fabrics and furniture, which can still be enjoyed by visitors today.
Reviewed By JohnHodderHobbit - Clitheroe, United Kingdom
Very beautiful house that original and several prosperous, successive owners never fulfilled to its potential as a dynastic home. WW2 offered limited available accommodation to HQ elements (intriguingly claimed for both the US 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions) prior to their sacrifice in !944. Their basic operations office with a new A/V display is functional, but emotional in context to those who left here to fight. The NT has furnished rooms with appropriate furnishings and displays although the original treasures are long gone. The house volunteer staff are some of the most friendly and informative you could ever hope to meet. Big kitchen and still used for cookery classes in traditional catering menus. Lovely surrounding flower gardens although much now to lawn. Approach to the House is from the public car park via a Yew Tree walk with wooden statuary and a play site for little persons. Particular worthy of mention are the delicious cakes and excellent coffee/tea available in the tea room inside ( jungle animal murals by Riddle ) or sit in outside court in fine weather.
2. Silchester Roman City Walls and Amphitheatre
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 316 reviews
Reviewed By rogergardiner - Basingstoke, United Kingdom
Not for wet weather but on a sunny day the circuit of the wall is well worth doing. Handy parking. Take in the 12th Century Church and the amphitheatre. Lovely countryside views. Drinks and food at the Calleva in Silchester.
3. Greyfriars Church
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 12 reviews
Reviewed By Malkimalk1952 - Reading, United Kingdom
Greyfriars offers several services on a Sunday to meet different worship tastes. Weekdays the bookshop is open and there are lots of activities for all ages.
4. Holy Trinity Church Theale
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 4 reviews
Holy Trinity Church Theale is a beautiful building, having been consecrated in 1832. It was modelled on Salisbury Cathedral and was once sketched by the artist John Constable. It is now a Grade 1 listed building. We meet for worship every Sunday morning at 10.30am, and provide many other activities for the community. Come and see our historic and beautiful church building.
5. Pincents Hill
Overall Ratings
4.0 based on 24 reviews
Reviewed By KentishPilgrim - Reading, United Kingdom
One of those millennium occasions when the stars and moon, and other bric-a-brac in the heavens do something that gets the scientists all excited. Early this year there was a Blood moon, a Full eclipse, but it was to happen inconveniently at night. My local Pagan society decided to make offerings to ensure the continuance of society and half of the stargazers of the County decided to aggregate somewhere for a Photo Op. Access permissions enabled limited vehicle access up the hill to Pincents Folly, a rigid digit of an Early Georgian Folly. It is said it was a secret love token within the Wilder family but there is no evidence, just a family story dug up in the early 1900s. It is said it was a Dovecote, but a long way from anywhere to go for a Cooey Pie. A lookout point for warring invasion,? hardly I think. It needs a new purpose! Might just have been a remote summer nooky house before a cabin on the Kennet became fashionable. Its purpose for us was to guide us pre-midnight up the hillside meadow to the Encampment from the Ikea carpark, following glowstiks to where a large Gazebo with a Hot Air blower had been erected, We had to carry chairs, blankets, lanterns, picnic boxs etc . The Marquee contained other limited sources of food and drink for a long night. Several trailers were scattered about with hefty bits of technical kit, said to be a 30cm refractors etc. There was a Sky Community Event truck, doing a Sky-at-night feature and a lot of enthusiasts were setting up tripods with smaller telescopes. The big advantage for me was that the bigger kit had video leads into the Marquee showing the image on a large TV, and we set our chair in the relative warm. Overall a bit of a wasted trip. A midnight excursion up a hill to gaze at an uninspiring tower in the milky moonlight that was diffused behind high cloud, to just a white area of cloud moving across the sky that sometime in the evening went darker and then lighter again before heading out west. Not even any meteorites, but there were fireworks over at Basildon. The Society put on good ad-hoc lectures to those who had ears to hear, of things Lunar and otherwise, and the gathering kept the children employed building Sky Lights, flying drones, and following treasure trails. The volunteer carers handed back yawning bundles, and not one of them lost or hurt, just a bit damp around the edges. How do they do that? at night and with such enthusiasm. The Society put on a good roasted sheep BBQ with other offalings, wrapped in country cornbread. The bar had a couple of boxes of local brew on offer but mainly people bought their own. By 4:00am, the gas heater was running out of energy, the grass was dewey with white bits, and down the hill was the sign of the Golden Arch, offering toilets and a hot breakfast. W helped fill up some hippo bags with recyclables and sacks of rubbish and then headed downhill A fun evening, rather like going to Stonehenge for the Solstice, and without a photo-op being offered. However, Pincints Hill is a very neglected lung to the Countryside, beyond the bounds of pollution from Reading, but worth a visit before West Berks turn the hill into a high priced housing estate. I am not sure who organised this event, or if it was just an Alagam of Community interest supporting the University Astro Club, but with about 150 of us up there, it certainly seemed to work and well worth the paper donation to the box as well as paying for the refreshments .
6. Surley Row Conservation Area
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