Beautiful Public Park In Reading: Caversham Court

 

 

Caversham Court which was earlier a manor and now is a public park situated on the north side bank of the River Thames in Caversham, a suburb of Reading in the English area of Berkshire. The garden exists in the St Peter's conservation area. The park is recorded as Grade II in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.

The House

 

On the north side of Caversham Bridge the medieval community was bunched which was toward the east of St Peter's Church, which was built in the twelfth century. Walter Giffard, the second Earl of Buckingham, gave the land for the church and neighboring parsonage, along with a lot of land around it, to the Augustinian Abbey of Notley close to Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire.  After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, these terrains were given to Christ Church, Oxford. Throughout the following four centuries, the Old Rectory, which got known as Caversham Court, was involved by the absolute most influential families in the Reading zone, who both improved and upgraded the site.

 

A Tudor trade for the first house was built around two yards. Its wonderful timber-framing prompted its nickname of the Striped House. It had a 1638 flight of stairs, with bullet holes from a Civil War assault, and an elaborate improved plaster ceiling. Parts of both are protected in the Museum of Reading. During the 1840s, the rectory and park walls were modified to a plan by A W Pugin who gave the house a castellated exterior with fretwork balustrade. The house was destroyed in 1933.

The Gardens

 

The gardens are spread out on three patios and cover a zone of 1.3 hectares (3.2 sections of land). The lower two comprise of yard specked with developed trees; the upper porch is the site of the old rectory and the first kitchen gardens which were changed over to allotments during World War II as a component of the "Burrow for Victory" crusade. The designations in the northwest corner protect the boundaries of the kitchen gardens with its 'crease crinkle' divider and a tall yew fence shaping the southern limit. The north limit with the churchyard is 4 to 5 meters higher than the nurseries beneath. In the upper east is the stable block of the previous house. Caversham Court contains various fine tree examples specifically, a huge Wellingtonia, a Bhutan Pine, a cedar of Lebanon, an Atlas cedar and a dark mulberry close to the primary passage. There are additionally massive yew fences surrounding the distribution gardens in the north west of the park and an old layered yew, an element famous in the seventeenth century, whereby a 'family' was made by layering to make a total ring of 'offspring'.

 

On 7 August 2009, the gardens were reopened after a £1.6 million ($2.5 million USD) rebuilding. The work has seen the foundation of a tea stand run by nearby charities and the proposition of a passenger ferry over the River Thames during occasions. Rebuilding work and continuous maintenance of the park is taken care by the Friends of Caversham Court Gardens

Open-air theatre and performance

 

Caversham Court has the yearly Reading Open Air Shakespeare celebration, organized by Reading's Progress Theater every July. The celebration started in 1995, and until 2008 was organized in the ruins of Reading Abbey. The conclusion of these remnants for security reasons implied that the celebration didn't run in 2009 or 2010, yet it was moved to Caversham Court in 2011, where it has remained. A perfect spot for little picnics and enjoy a perfect day with family and friends. This place can be easily reached through a taxi in reading and it has an amazing coffee shop too.