Featuring portraits, furniture and architecture, as well as letters, photographs, memories and manuscripts, we are continuously creating special interest collections of artefacts and records that offer fascinating guided tours through Lydiard Park’s historic past.
In 2025, we mark the 70th anniversary of Lydiard House opening its doors to the public—a milestone that celebrates not only a beloved heritage site but also a remarkable story of preservation and community spirit.
Heraldry cannot be overlooked at St. Mary’s. It adorns the painted windows and 17th century monuments, appearing in carvings and paintings and reaching almost obsessive concentration in the great St.John family polyptych.
Around Valentine’s Day, we see advertisements for jewellery, with suggestions to buy the person you love a special piece of jewellery or even a diamond ring. This seemed a good time to take a look at the jewellery worn by some of the St.John ladies.
A fascinating collection of St.John family memorabilia, generously donated to The Friends of Lydiard Park by Anne Barr in 2023, a former friend of Vernon Henry St.John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke.
Fragments of the Bishop’s Transcripts (copies of the parish registers) for Lydiard Tregoze survive from 1607 with the burial of James Gardiner in May of that year. However, this was not the first burial in the churchyard surrounding the ancient church of St. Mary’s.
Wills can be both fascinating and frustrating, for what they say, what or who they miss out and what they may be hinting at! A collection of wills for a single community like Lydiard Tregoze provides information which is useful to local, family and social historians.
This collection celebrates the theme of love with a group of exquisite St.John family miniatures drawn from Lydiard House and private collections.
2023 marks the 80th anniversary of Swindon Corporation’s visionary purchase of Lydiard Park for the people of Swindon in November 1943.
Looking at Lydiard Park's beautiful grounds and playing fields today it is hard to imagine they were once occupied by a German military hospital camp.
Archaeological investigations at Lydiard Park have usually been in response to restoration and development initiatives by Swindon Borough Council, the most extensive being undertaken in 2004 by Wessex Archaeology.
The parish of Lydiard Tregoze contained a number of medium-sized farms. The stories of some of the people who owned, lived, or worked on the farms in the twentieth century have been told in a remarkable series of memoirs and diaries, while the history of the farms and its workers before this time can be found in documents such as wills and parish records.
Lydiard Park is about more than a building, an estate, or the family who lived in the ‘big house’ in Lydiard Tregoze. It also comprises those who lived, worked, and prayed here in the past, and the families who live here today.
Eighty-four men left Lydiard Tregoze to fight in the Great War, and fourteen never returned. From farmers and labourers to the brothers in Lydiard House, explore the impact of World War I on this small community.
A unique compendium of 40 annual publications from the Friends, along with authored papers, containing scholarly articles and social history related to Lydiard Park.
Transcriptions, images, and archival resources of documents, parish records, wills, diaries, correspondence, accounts, inventories and other recorded materials.
A starting place to search for a wide range of Lydiard ephemera, including art, monuments, furniture, architectural and landscape features, graves, maps, books, and videos.
Archival newspaper, magazine and film clippings, as well as personal recollections and stories of life at Lydiard over the past 150 years
The Lydiard Archives are a unique digital collection of objects, records, reports and ephemera documenting the thousand-year history of Lydiard House and Park. Created by volunteers with a passion for preservation and accessibility, The Lydiard Archives are managed by The Friends of Lydiard Park, an independent charity formed to protect, conserve and educate people about this beautiful historic estate with its Palladian house, ancient church, walled garden, and rolling parkland.
