Wine cellar, Lydiard House

The cellars of Lydiard House are surprisingly modest in scale and have possibly been truncated at some point in history. They comprise one large room at the base of the staircase with various wide passage ways leading from it. Brick walls, encaustic tiled floors and simple wooden latch doors feature throughout.

In one passage convex wine shelves are still largely intact and could comfortably accommodate several hundred bottles. In another passage there are a series of bays for storing bottles, possibly beer which would have been brewed on site.

Over the years, archaeological investigations at Lydiard Park have revealed a quantity of 18th century wine bottles.

Some members of the St.John family were notorious drinkers. Henry 1st Viscount St.John killed Sir William Estcourt in a tavern brawl in 1684, an argument no doubt fueled by alcohol. His grandson Frederick St.John (d1787) was exceptionally extravagant and particularly partial to fine wine as he was to gambling, habits which triggered the family's financial decline.