Supporters

Swindon Borough Council are pleased to be working with The Friends of Lydiard Park to make the museum’s unique collections digitally accessible to the public. Some of the museum’s items aren’t normally on display, so it’s fantastic that members of the public will be able to have digital access to them through The Lydiard Archives.

Frances Yeo, Manager, Swindon Museums

Lydiard House is Grade I listed building, owned and managed by Swindon Borough Council. Lydiard House Museum is an Accredited Museum comprising a number of State Rooms which have been open to the public since 1955. Since that time the council have collected items to furnish the rooms through purchases, gifts, loans and bequests. The loan of portraits from the late Lord Bolingbroke in the 1960s, facilitated by The Friends of Lydiard Tregoz, saw a new focus on acquiring items that originally came from the House. This has seen the return of virtually all the St.John family portrait collection from Elizabethan times onwards, alongside some original furniture and decorative art.

Lydiard House is also the repository for a wide range of items pertaining to Lydiard Park, St. Mary's Church and the St.John family, that are not usually on public display. These include photographs, inventories, catalogues, pictures, books, St.John family ephemera and other records that chart the life of the estate and its owners over the centuries.

The Lydiard Archives bring together a wealth of original source material and research relating to St. Mary’s Church; its history, conservation and the people of the parish. We hope it will encourage more people to visit and learn about its rich heritage and pivotal place in the history of Lydiard Park.

Revd. Captain Clive Deverell, Vicar of St. Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze

St. Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze is a worshipping church in the community and a Grade I listed building situated just a few steps from Lydiard House. It is considered to be one of the most important small parish churches in England on account of the exceptional quality of its 17th century monuments to the St. John family. The present building originated in the 12th century but much of the structure belongs to the 15th century when it was enlarged and embellished with wall paintings and fine glass. The St. John family polyptych is of international significance and together with other Renaissance style monuments erected by Sir John St. John, 1st Baronet (d.1648) it has attracted the attention of antiquarians, writers and artists across the centuries. St. Mary’s churchyard includes listed chest tombs and together with the nearby cemetery on Hook Street, it provides a wonderful resource for family history research, significantly enhanced by The Lydiard Archives. The church does not keep historic records on site but follows statuary requirements to deposit items at the Wiltshire and Swindon Record Centre.

The Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre is delighted to support this wonderful project by the Friends of Lydiard Park. The digital images and information available on this easy-to-use website will help researchers and anyone interested in the rich heritage of Lydiard Park to discover more about the house, landscape and the people who lived and worked on the estate and in the wider parish. It really brings history to life!

Terry Bracher, Heritage Services Manager, Wiltshire Council

The Wiltshire and Swindon Archives service based at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham www.wshc.org.uk contains over 8 miles of archives going back 800 years for the county of Wiltshire and the borough of Swindon. These include numerous records that relate to Lydiard Park and the parish of Lydiard Tregoze. 

Private deposits include estate archives, that tell us much about the families who built and owned houses like Lydiard Park. They also help us understand the rhythm of everyday life on the estate, including business, work, and social interactions of those in all parts of society; from the landed gentry and life in high society, to estate workers, tradespeople and local parishioners who had connections with the house and the surrounding area. The main collections that relate to Lydiard Park include the following:

WSA 305 Records: St.John (Viscount Bolingbroke) family from 1565 – c.1930, originating from Goodwyn and sons, land agents to Lord Bolingbroke and later Viscountess Mary Bolingbroke.

WSA 2323 Papers: St.John Family, Viscounts Bolingbroke of Lydiard Park c.1825 - 1957 deposited by solicitors who acted for the family.

WSA 3430 Papers: St.John Family of Lydiard House Wiltshire; Battersea, London; and Frampton-on-Severn and Kempsford, Gloucestershire, from 1528-1950.These records also relate to estates in Essex, Kent and Surrey, and in North America.

WSA 4482: Friends of Lydiard Park, Papers of Brian Carne, who was Rector of St. Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze from 1960 to 1968 and co-founded the Friends of Lydiard Tregoze in 1967. This collection contains over 100 volumes of research and information on the families of Lydiard Park and St Mary’s church.

Official records are also held at the History Centre, including Parish records, such as the churchwardens accounts from 1668 - 1966, Overseers of the Poor accounts 1780 - 1843 and charities 1645 -1948.  

School records, especially logbooks, can provide an insight into not only school life but also the whole community, including notable events such as the First and Second World Wars, coronations, epidemics etc. The Archive contains logbooks for Lydiard Tregoze primary school 1866 -1965 and admission registers 1866-1928; and for Lydiard Park temporary County School 1952-1960.

Some information about individual parishioners and their families may also be found in records of the Cricklade and Wotton Bassett Poor Law Union, with the workhouse being erected in Purton in 1837. However, only the Board of Guardian minutes from 1839-1930, Workhouse Committee books 1914-1926 and indoor relief ledgers 1913-1916, survive.

Prior to the existence of local authorities counties were administered by the Quarter Session courts. Dating from the 1600s to c.1890s these archives include information on civil and criminal cases brought before the court, corners records, jurors’ books, oaths and declarations, militia, alehouse licenses, turnpikes, repairs of highways and bridges, enclosure, taxation assessments, poll books and more.

Researchers can contact or visit Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre: email [email protected] and can also search the catalogue online Home Page (wiltshire.gov.uk)

Explore associated archives

Historic England is proud to have been able to partner with Friends of Lydiard Park, to bring greater awareness of the resources available and contribute to making this impressive archive available to a larger audience.

Paul Backhouse MCMI, Head of Archive and Library, Historic England

The Historic England Archive and Library is the archive for England’s historic environment, we hold over 12 million photographs, drawings, reports and publications from the 1850s to the present day, which cover the whole country. Over a million of our records can be searched online through our website with more being added on a regular basis.

Our records for Lydiard House, Park, Church, and parish of Lydiard Tregoze include material gathered by the National Buildings Record as part of the Architectural Red Box Collection, a project, to document our built heritage, especially those buildings threatened or damaged by bombing during the Second World War. Our collections contain material which dates from the early 1940’s through to the latest photography captured in 1996, whilst some of this material is available digitally via our website, other records are stored safely in our specialist archive facility in Swindon and can be viewed upon request.

Explore associated archives

“Local Studies at Swindon Central Library are proud to support the Friends of Lydiard Park in the creation of The Lydiard Archives. To draw together such a wide range of historical resources allows researchers a unique opportunity to truly understand the complex and surprising story of this historic site”.

Darryl Moody, Library Development & Innovation Manager, Swindon Borough Council

Swindon’s Local Studies collection is part of Swindon Library & Information Service and is housed in Central Library. The collection covers the entire borough of Swindon and the surrounding area, including Lydiard House & Park and the parish of Lydiard Tregoze itself. The collection covers all subjects, at all levels, in all formats. This includes books, CDs, DVDs, ephemera, maps, newspapers, periodicals, photographs, plans, postcards, reports, scrapbooks, slides, vinyl records, voter lists, and much more.

Local Studies host and run the Swindon & District History Network (est. 2010), drawing together dozens of local history groups, heritage institutions, writers and historians. Researchers can email [email protected] and search the catalogue online.

I am delighted that Deacons as Swindon’s oldest Retail business is able to lend its support to Lydiard Park and its role in the history and story of Swindon.

Richard Deacon, Managing Director

Situated in the heart of Swindon Town, Deacons has stood proudly as a high street landmark for over 175 years. It was founded as a jewellers, watch & clock makers by George Deacon in 1848 and remains a family run business now in its sixth generation and an official Rolex retailer in the region. The company’s expanded and refurbished workshops were opened by Her Majesty Queen Camilla in January 2024, celebrating Deacon’s historic anniversary and demonstrating their continued commitment to craftmanship and quality service.