Painting of Lydiard Park manor house and gardens, c1700

This painting was commissioned by The Friends of Lydiard Park in 2021 to help visualise what Lydiard House and its surrounding gardens looked like in c1700, prior to the building being remodelled in the 1740's.

Artist Billy Beaumont worked collaboratively with Friends' Trustee and architect, Michael Gray, drawing on known evidence whilst giving the picture a modern twist.

A plan of c1700 which incudes a birds eye view of the medieval style manor house provided considerable detail. Michael Gray was able to translate this information into a series of digital drawings which also took account of the building archaeology, giving artist Billy Beaumont the most accurate dimensions of the building to date.

One of the most surprising outcomes of the collaboration has been the realisation of the size and scale of the service wing to the west of the main house and the extent of the (partly shown) formal gardens.