Swindon in the Past Lane

Learning about our local history was a walk in the park with the Prime Theatre production Painting the Past. Painting the Past tells the story of Sir John St John 1 st Baronet whose spirit is trapped at Lydiard Park unable to let go of the pain and loss of his life. The young time travelling painters who ‘swish, brush, etch and sketch’ celebrate the art he left behind, informing him that in 2019 people will come to admire the monuments and paintings in the church and learn about his family. There was a courtly Elizabethan dance on the front lawn and a ghostly Civil War re-enactment in the woods and my favourite scene - the History and Hers rap about the St John women who appear on the polyptych in the church. The well-researched and historically accurate production was performed in the parkland as part of the HLF funded St Mary’s Church Conservation Project. The young actors gave a mature, thoughtful and fun performance. Painting the Past deserves to be seen again and th...

There was a fantastic response by local people to last night's Friends of Lydiard Park meeting. Some reports say 600 people others that more than 700 attended the public meeting at Lydiard Park Academy. It was difficult to tell. The start of the meeting was delayed as reports came through that cars were queued up outside the school as far as the roundabout at the top of Hay Lane and parking was becoming a problem. All seats were quickly filled as more chairs were brought out. People sat on benches and stood three and four deep around the edges of the sports hall. Speakers included Mike Bowden, Chair of the Friends of Lydiard Park; Friends trustee Sarah Finch Crisp, who worked as Keeper at Lydiard Park for 24 years and headed the Lydiard Park Project, an ambitious landscape restoration project funded by a £3.1 million Heritage Lottery Fund grant; Cllr Garry Perkins (Con Haydon Wick) Cabinet Member for Economy, Regeneration and Skills and Matthew Courtliff, prospective Labour c...

If you were unable to attend the two public engagement days at Lydiard Park you can print off this form and scan it and send your reply to lydiardfuture@swindon.gov.uk or post it to Rachel Watts, Asset Transformation Delivery Lead at Swindon Borough Council, Civic Offices, Euclid Street, Swindon SN1 2JH. Closing date is December 18. There have been criticisms of this process and the form. 1. Why wasn't the form available, not only as a hard copy, but also online. In the past the Council has used SurveyMonkey - see the following Wikipedia description -  SurveyMonkey is an online survey development cloud-based (software as a service) company, founded in 1999 by Ryan Finley. SurveyMonkey provides free, customizable surveys, as well as a suite of paid back-end programs that include data analysis, sample selection, bias elimination, and data representation tools. In addition to providing free and paid plans for individual users. SurveyMoney offers more large-scale enterp...

Is democracy dead in this country? If you were at last night's Council Meeting at the Civic Offices you could be forgiven for thinking it is in Swindon. Personally, I am governed by a political party I didn't vote for at either national or local level, but hey ho, I suppose this is a drawback of the democratic process. But do these people I didn't vote for have carte blanche to impose upon me decisions with which I seriously disagree. Is there no room for appeal or debate, even compromise? Well at local level apparently not. Swindon Borough Council is hell bent on leasing out Lydiard House and Park with the matter of the Council subsidy of £450,000 constantly quoted. Members protest that their aim is to reduce the council subsidy and, with the aid of a private sector partner or partners, generate new and sustainable forms of income. A number of experts in the field believe that this is possible while keeping the Grade I Palladian mansion and Grade II listed parkla...