BASILDEN, or Basildon, a parish in Bradfield district, Berks; on the river Thames, and on the Great Western railway, 1 mile SSE of Goring station, and 7¾ WNW of Reading. Post Town, Pangbourne, under Reading. Acres, 3,083. Real property, £4,875. Pop., 712. Houses, 148. The property is divided among a few. Basilden Park was the seat of the Viscounts Fane from 1718 till 1766; passed then to the baronet family of Sykes; and was recently purchased by T. Morrison, Esq. The house contains a fine collection of works of art. The railway crosses the Thames a short distance above the church. The parish had two churches at Domesday, and afterwards the right of a weekly market. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £200.* Patron, the Rev. W. Sykes. The church is ancient. There is a dissenting chapel.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))