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A grand pale stone country house at the end of a drive between lawns

Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Things to do · Lechlade-on-Thames

Buscot Park

A late eighteenth-century house near Lechlade, run by Lord Faringdon for the National Trust, with Burne-Jones's Briar Rose paintings, the Faringdon Collection and Harold Peto's water garden, open on spring and summer afternoons.

Price band 2 of 4 Verified Oct 2026

Two things justify the drive: Burne-Jones's Briar Rose paintings in the saloon and Peto's water garden running down to the lake. National Trust members get in free, though Trust vouchers are not accepted, and dogs stay in the paddock car park.

  • Good: National Trust and Historic Houses members free
  • Good: Free parking, with picnic tables by the car park
  • Good: Four mobility scooters and a wheelchair to borrow free; book ahead
  • Worth knowing: Afternoons only, on calendar days from spring to the end of September
  • Worth knowing: 14 steps up to the house; the house is unsuitable for wheelchairs
  • Worth knowing: No dogs except in the Paddock Field overflow car park

About

Buscot Park is a house of 1779 to 1783 on the A417 between Lechlade and Faringdon, built by Edward Loveden Loveden in the Palladian taste. Alexander Henderson, later the first Lord Faringdon, bought it after the previous owner went bankrupt, and his grandson Gavin remodelled it. The estate passed to the National Trust in 1956, but the present Lord Faringdon lives here and runs the house and grounds, with the family's Faringdon Collection of paintings and furniture.

The saloon holds Burne-Jones's Legend of the Briar Rose, the four Sleeping Beauty paintings he worked on for twenty years and showed in 1890. Henderson bought them, and Burne-Jones, staying with William Morris at Kelmscott Manor across the fields, painted the panels and designed the gilt frame that join them. Outside, Harold Peto's water garden of 1904, extended in 1911 to 1913, carries a canal through woodland in rills, pools and small cascades down to the lake, and the old kitchen garden is now the Four Seasons walled garden.

It opens on set afternoons from late March to the end of September, so check the calendar: the grounds open 2pm to 6pm and the house from 2pm, with last entry at 5pm. Adults pay £14 for house and grounds or £10 for the grounds alone (2026). There is no booking: everyone, members included, collects a ticket at the office. Allow two to three hours. On grounds-only days the ticket office is unstaffed: pay in cash at the honesty box, and members sign in on the clipboard.

There are no dogs in the gardens and no lunches in the tea room, which serves cream teas and cakes. Down by the Thames, St Mary's Church, Buscot has windows by Burne-Jones too, on our walk from Lechlade to Buscot.

Opening hours and season

Closed until Friday 26 March 2027. On open days: grounds 2pm to 6pm, house from 2pm with last entry 5pm, tea room 2pm to 5.30pm. Check the calendar on the house's site.

Facilities

  • Free car parkDisabled bays; parking by the house can be arranged at the ticket office
  • Tea roomCream teas and cakes on house days, 2pm to 5.30pm; no lunches
  • ToiletsIn the stables by the ticket office, with accessible toilets
  • Mobility scootersFour scooters and a wheelchair, free; book with the estate office
  • Ticket officeIce creams, soft drinks and local cider
  • No dogs in the gardensDogs may be exercised in the Paddock Field overflow car park

The details

Time to allow
Two to three hours
Features
Café · Parking · Picnic area
History
House built 1779 to 1783; water garden by Harold Peto from 1904
Parking
Free car park with disabled bays, and picnic tables beside it from 1pm. Satnav SN7 8BU, on the A417 between Lechlade and Faringdon.
Without a car
Swindon station is 14 miles away. The 64 from Swindon (three or four a day, Monday to Saturday) reaches Lechlade, then a 3-mile walk; the S6 Swindon to Oxford runs often via Faringdon.

Photos

  • A gravel path between deep summer flower borders in a walled garden
    The flower garden Photo: John Chapman, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
  • Stone steps rising up a grassy slope between trees
    The garden steps Photo: Michael Garlick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
  • The pale stone Georgian house at Buscot Park across a wide lawn, with a clipped tree in the foreground
    The house across the lawn Photo: Rictor Norton & David Allen, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
  • The lake at Buscot Park seen through bare, ivy-covered trees under a blue sky
    The lake Photo: Vieve Forward, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Location

Map showing where Buscot Park is
© OpenStreetMap contributors

Accessibility

  • Accessible toilet
  • Hearing loop
  • Large print available

House: 14 steps with a handrail to the entrance hall and 31 to the first floor; unsuitable for wheelchairs, with a photo guide to the upper rooms. Garden: usable with manual wheelchairs and scooters, with steps and steep paths shown on the free map. Paths can be muddy in wet weather, especially in the water garden. Ramped tea room; loops at the ticket office and tea room.

Questions about Buscot Park

Is Buscot Park free for National Trust members?

Yes. National Trust and Historic Houses members go free at Buscot Park, but everyone, members included, must collect an admission ticket from the ticket office before entering the gardens. The family runs the property for the Trust, so Trust vouchers, 2 for 1 offers and Trust gift cards are not accepted.

Can you take dogs to Buscot Park?

No. Dogs are not allowed in Buscot Park's formal gardens, pleasure grounds or any visitor area. They may be exercised on leads in the Paddock Field, which is the overflow car park, so a dog can come for the drive but not round the gardens.

When is Buscot Park open?

Buscot Park is closed until Friday 26 March 2027. In season it opens on set afternoons shown in its calendar, with the grounds open from 2pm to 6pm and the house from 2pm, last entry at 5pm. No one is admitted before 2pm, though picnics by the car park can start at 1pm.

Is Buscot Park accessible for wheelchairs?

The gardens are, the house is not. Buscot Park's house has 14 steps up to the entrance hall and is unsuitable for wheelchairs. The garden suits manual wheelchairs and scooters, with steps and steep paths marked on the free map, and four scooters and a wheelchair can be borrowed free by booking with the estate office.

Places to stay nearby

Where to stay in Lechlade-on-Thames
  • The stone farmhouse of Manor Farm behind a paddock fence beside the village lane

    Manor Farm B&B

    B&B · Kelmscott

    A late seventeenth-century farmhouse B&B with three en-suite rooms on a working farm in Kelmscott, with a shepherd's hut and a pod, each with its own wood-fired hot tub, in the meadow across the lane.

    Family-friendly · Walker-friendly · Hot tubs

    Verified Nov 2026

  • A stone village inn with parasols and a garden wall in sunshine

    The Plough, Kelmscott

    Pubs · Kelmscott

    Kelmscott's village pub, a listed stone inn dated 1690, a few minutes from Kelmscott Manor and the Thames Path, serving British pub classics, breakfast and Sunday roasts, with a garden and eight bedrooms.

    Verified Oct 2026

  • A caravan on a grass field under big clouds, with Lechlade church spire in the distance

    Bridge House Campsite

    Camping · Lechlade-on-Thames

    A small family-run touring and camping field on Thames Street, Lechlade, a short walk from the river and the town, with 42 pitches and three bell tents, open from late March until it closes for the winter.

    Dog-friendly · Walker-friendly

    Verified Nov 2026

Nearby walks, places and things to do

Sights nearby

  • A small stone church with a west tower and a churchyard path on a bright day

    St Mary's Church, Buscot

    Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames

    Buscot's small thirteenth-century church by the Thames below Lechlade, with a full set of Morris & Co. windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones from 1892 to 1924, a zigzag chancel arch and the Loveden monuments by Robert Cooke. Grade I.

  • A reclining stone statue of a bearded river god behind a low fence by a lock

    Father Thames and St John's Lock

    Sight · Monument · Lechlade-on-Thames

    Raffaelle Monti's reclining river god, modelled in cement for the Crystal Palace in 1854, beside St John's Lock below Lechlade, the first lock on the Thames. He lay at the river's source from 1958 until vandals drove him here in 1974. Grade II.

  • Stone riverside buildings reflected in the calm Thames

    River Thames at Lechlade

    Sight · River · Lechlade-on-Thames

    The young Thames at Lechlade, where the Coln and the Leach join it and the old Thames and Severn Canal met it at the Round House: long the head of the navigable river, with the Thames Path past Halfpenny Bridge to St John's Lock.

  • A stone church with a tall spire and large perpendicular windows above a sunny churchyard

    St Lawrence's Church, Lechlade

    Sight · Church · Lechlade-on-Thames

    Lechlade's wool church on the Market Place, rebuilt in Taynton stone in the 1470s, with a spire seen across the Thames meadows and a churchyard that moved Shelley to verse in 1815. Grade I; closed for restoration through 2026, with reopening expected by Christmas.

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