The Ladies of Lydiard

Things have been rather quiet of late in the Past Lane but I’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes.

First there was Grave Matters, a survey of the churchyard at St. Mary’s, Lydiard Park and the small cemetery at Hook. As part of a team of volunteers I have been working on photographing and collating the inscriptions on the headstones and writing histories of some of the people buried there. The work of the Grave Matters group will contribute to the Project Archives enterprise – for more details visit the Friends of Lydiard Park website.

Next came the discovery of the fascinating Woolford diaries. Elliot Woolford farmed at Hook Farm from 1899 until his death in 1941. Throughout that time, he kept a diary, begun in 1892 when as a young man he started his farming career at Bagbury Farm with his brothers Rowland and Charles.

The diaries provide a view of everyday life in the rural parish of Lydiard Tregoze during a time of great social change. As might be expected Elliot takes great pains to record the vagaries of the weather and the impact on the work of the farm. Easter 1917 was particularly hard with heavy snowfalls during the first two weeks of April.

The diaries have kindly been made available by the Woolford family who still farm at Hook more than 120 years later.

And finally – (drum roll) – the publication of my book The Ladies of Lydiard, which has been my WIP for several years.

The St. John family who owned Lydiard House and Park for more than 500 years were an extraordinary family. Related to royalty they were both famous and notorious in equal measure. The lives of the St. John men have been well documented, but I wanted to know about their wives and daughters and the stories behind the spectacular portraits in Lydiard House.

The Ladies of Lydiard is published today by Hobnob Press and is available online at Amazon both here and in the US and Australia. Swindon followers might like to order their copy locally from Bert’s Books.

The cover girl on The Ladies of Lydiard is Anne Leighton, wife of Sir John St. John, 1^st Baronet and if you think she looks a bit Tudorish – well there could be a reason for that!

The Ladies of Lydiard

Lydiard House

St. Mary's Church, Lydiard Tregoz

The Lychgate at Hook Cemetery

The grave of Elliot Woolford and his wife Amy

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Swindon in the Past Lane

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