Lydiard Parkis a 260-acre (110-hectare) country park atLydiard Tregoze,which was its former name,[1]about 3 miles (5 km) west of centralSwindon,Wiltshire,England, inWest Swindonparish, near Junction 16 of theM4 motorway.
The park, which is included on theHistoric EnglandRegister of Historic Parks and Gardensat Grade II, surrounds the Grade I listedLydiard House,a mansion built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
History
editA settlement atLediar,with woodland, is mentioned in theDomesday Book[2]and was owned by the Tregoze family from about 1198.[3]In 1259,Henry IIIgave Robert Tregoze a royal licence to create adeer parkin nearby woodland.[1]In 1420 the estate came by marriage to theSt John family(whose seat was atBattersea,London), and they owned it until the Second World War.[3]
Formal gardens and a canal were created as part of changes made to the medieval house in the 17th century; Sir John St John also laid out a series of formal avenues.[4]However, many of the formal elements of the park had been removed by 1766.[1]Surviving features from the 18th century include a semi-underground listed ice house[5]and a walled garden,[6]with a bronze sundial at its centre.[7]Large parts of the park were sold off in the 1920s and 1930s.[4]
From 1942 the park was used as a military hospital by the American Forces, and then between about 1943 and about March 1946 it was aPrisoner of Warhospital for German soldiers as POW camp No.160. In 1943,[4]Councillor and Alderman Francis Akers bought the estate and the dilapidated house at auction and sold the whole to the local authority, the Corporation of Swindon, for £4,500.[citation needed]
Since 1955, the park has been open to the public all year round. The park was designated Grade II on theRegister of Historic Parks and Gardensin 1987, as an example of a mid-18th century park having archaeological evidence of its 17th-century formal layout.[4]The walls of thewalled gardenareGrade II listed[6]as is thesundialwithin it.[7]
In 2005, Swindon Borough Council received £3m from theHeritage Lottery Fundtowards a restoration project which included reinstating a two-acre lake.[8]The park hostedRadio 1's Big Weekendin 2009.[9]
In 2017, the park was transferred from Lydiard Tregoze parish to the newly createdWest Swindonparish.[10][11]
As a result of the2022 heatwaves,traces of formal gardens thought to date from the 17th century became visible from the air.[12]
Lydiard House
edit
Themanor house,known asLydiard Houseor Lydiard Park, has medieval origins and was remodelled in the 17th century and the 1740s, when the south and east fronts were reworked inPalladianstyle, probably byRoger Morris.The house was designated asGrade I listedin 1955.[13]
When the estate was bought by Swindon Corporation, almost none of the original furnishings remained. In the 1950s, the corporation began to collect suitable contents for the house, aiming in particular to restore the 18th century State Rooms. These efforts were much helped in 1955 when some good furniture arrived on loan from theNational Art Collections Fund,part of theE. E. Cookbequest.[14]During the 1960sLord Bolingbrokeloaned several St John family portraits to the house and later sold them to the corporation. When he died in 1974, he bequeathed to the trustees of the house everything he owned which had come from it.
The art collection at Lydiard House includes landscapes and busts as well as portraits spanning over 300 years. The portraits include works byWilliam Aikman,Michael Dahl,John Greenhill,Cornelius Johnson,Godfrey Kneller,Sir Peter Lely,Jonathan RichardsonandMaria Verelst.[15]
The corporation's successor,Swindon Borough Council,owns and manages the house and park. The house, with its collections of furniture and art – including painted wall panels byLady Diana Beauclerk– is open to the public in the summer months.[16]The house and a modern annex are operated as a conference centre and wedding venue, with accommodation for guests.[17]
Immediately north of the house stands the parish church of St Mary,which is all that remains of the medieval village. The church has 13th-century origins and was refurbished and enlarged in the 15th and 17th centuries; it is Grade I listed.[18]
In fiction
editThe dereliction of the hall and the declining fortunes of the St John family formed the backdrop of the 1967 novelThe Heir of Starvelingsby American writerEvelyn Berckman.[19]
References
edit- ^abcParks & Gardens UK, accessed 5 June 2012
- ^Lydiard [Tregoze] in theDomesday Book
- ^abDunning, R.W.; Rogers, K.H.; Spalding, P.A.; Shrimpton, Colin; Stevenson, Janet H.; Tomlinson, Margaret (1970). Crittall, Elizabeth (ed.)."Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 9 pp75-90 - Parishes: Lydiard Tregoze".British History Online.University of London.Retrieved15 May2018.
- ^abcdHistoric England."Lydiard Park (1001238)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^Historic England."Ice House, approx. 200m west of Lydiard Park Mansion (1355896)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^abHistoric England."Walled Garden north-west of Lydiard Park (1023478)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^abHistoric England."Sundial (1283843)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved15 May2018.
- ^"Restoration of park".Lydiard Park.Swindon Borough Council.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^"BBC - Radio 1's Big Weekend - 2009 - Line Up".bbc.co.uk.Retrieved24 May2022.
- ^"Election Maps: Great Britain".Ordnance Survey.Retrieved26 February2024.
- ^"Community governance review".Swindon Borough Council.2 February 2017. Archived fromthe originalon 22 February 2017 – via Internet Archive.
- ^"Lost Gardens of Lydiard revealed after heatwave".BBC News.18 August 2022.Retrieved18 August2022.
- ^Historic England."Lydiard Park (1198420)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^"Two George I chairs by Unknown Artist".Art Fund.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^"Lydiard House".Art UK.Retrieved13 June2022.
- ^"Plan Your Visit".Lydiard Park.Swindon Borough Council.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^"Conference Centre".Lydiard Park.Swindon Borough Council.Retrieved14 May2018.
- ^Historic England."Church of St. Mary, Lydiard Park (1023470)".National Heritage List for England.Retrieved17 May2018.
- ^"10 Facts about Lydiard Park".Less Known Facts.2 April 2017.Retrieved24 May2022.
Further reading
edit- Pevsner, Nikolaus;Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1975) [1963].Wiltshire.The Buildings of England(2nd ed.). Harmondsworth:Penguin Books.pp. 318–319.ISBN0-14-0710-26-4.
External links
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