Caversham Park
Following the Civil War, the Elizabethan manor house was demolished because of its poor state of repair and rebuilt by Lord Craven after 1660, probably with William Winde as the architect.In his Observations on Modern Gardening of 1770,[8] Thomas Whately described the approach to Lord Cadogan's Caversham as exemplary, an artful solution to its restrictive setting "confined within a narrow valley, without views, buildings or water",[9] He praises the unequivocal statement of being a road to a grand house: "The approach to Caversham, though a mile in length, and not once in sight of the house, till close upon it, yet can never be mistaken for any other way than it is".[10] "Crossing the whole breadth of a lovely valley; the road is conducted along the bottom, continually winding in natural easy sweeps, and presenting at every bend some new scene to the view ... insensibly ascending, all the way".[10] It finally "rises under a thick wood in the garden up to the house, where it suddenly bursts out upon a rich, and extensive prospect, with the town and the churches of Reading full in sight, and the hills of Windsor forest in the horizon."[11] In April 1786, Thomas Jefferson, the future third President of the United States, visited Caversham Park and other places described in Whately's treatise in search of inspirations for his own gardens at Monticello and other architectural projects.However, he gives a fuller account of the route they were taking: "Mr. Jefferson and myself went in a post-chaise to Woburn farm, Caversham, Wotton, Stowe, Edgehill, Stratford upon Avon, Birmingham, the Leasowes, Hagley, Stourbridge, Worcester, Woodstock, Blenheim, Oxford, High Wycombe, and back to Grosvenor Square...[13] He was damning about the means used to finance the large estates, and he did not think that the embellishments to the landscape, made by the owners of the great English country houses, would suit the more rugged American countryside.[14] The present building, inspired by Italian baroque palaces, was erected after a fire in 1850 by architect Horace Jones,[15] who much later also designed London's Tower Bridge.[22] When approaching Reading via the A3290 (formerly part of the A329(M) motorway) northbound near the A4 junction, Caversham Park is a clearly visible landmark dominating the wooded hill on the opposite side of the Thames.However, the BBC purchased the property with government grant-in-aid funds, and moved its Monitoring Service into the premises from Wood Norton Hall, near Evesham in Worcestershire, in Spring 1943.[23] In major building works in the 1980s, Norman Lucey, Architect for the BBC Architectural & Civil Engineering Department restored the interior of the mansion, removed utilitarian brick buildings put up on the east side of the mansion during the war, converted the orangery (then being used as a canteen) into editorial offices, and built a large new west wing to house the listening room.
BBC MonitoringGrade II listedStately homeNeoclassicalCaversham, BerkshireCoordinatesWilliam Crawshay IIHorace JonesVictorianCavershamReadingOxfordshireBerkshireBBC Radio BerkshireEnglish Heritage Register of Historic Parks and GardensNormanWalter GiffardWilliam the Conquerormanor housecastleThamesDomesday BookEarl of PembrokeProtector of the RealmHenry IIIEarls of WarwickFrancis KnollysQueen Elizabeth IWilliam KnollysEarl of BanburyQueen Anne of DenmarkThomas CampionRoyalistEarl of CravenCivil WarCharles IWilliam Cadogan, 1st Earl CadoganDuke of MarlboroughBlenheim PalaceCharles MarsackHigh Sheriff of OxfordshireThomas WhatelyWindsorThomas JeffersontreatiseMonticelloarchitectural projectsDoric templepastureJohn Adamspost-chaiseWoburnWottonEdgehillStratford upon Avonthe LeasowesHagleyStourbridgeWorcesterWoodstockBlenheimOxfordHigh WycombeGrosvenor SquarebaroquepalacesTower BridgeironmastercolonnadesPevsnerThe Oratory SchoolWorld War IIancient parishEye and DunsdenCaversham Park VillageLocal nature reserveClayfield CopseA329(M) motorwaylandmarkSecond World WarMonitoring ServiceWood Norton HallEveshamCrowsley ParkHistoric EnglandNational Heritage List for EnglandThe London GazetteG. C. BoaseOxford Dictionary of National BiographyHoward ColvinWayback MachineEnglish Heritagelegislation.gov.ukThe National ArchivesBBC News OnlineCharlottesvilleUniversity of Virginia PressAbbey GatewayChazey Court BarnGreyfriars ChurchReading AbbeyReading MinsterSt Laurence's ChurchAlbion TerraceCalcot ParkChrist ChurchFoxhill HouseReading Town HallRoyal Berkshire HospitalRoyal Berkshire Regiment War MemorialSimeon MonumentSt Mary's Church, Castle StreetSt Peter's Church, CavershamWatlington HouseAbbey MillAll Saints' ChurchBath Road ReservoirBattle LibraryBroad Street Independent ChapelBrock BarracksColey ParkCrown CourtElm LodgeHigh BridgeHighdown SchoolHoly Trinity Church