Swindon in the Past Lane

Innovation was the order of the day at Coleshill when work began on revamping the Earl of Radnor’s home farm.   The previous farmstead had already received the seal of approval from radical politician William Cobbett, who brought rural poverty to the attention of 19 th  century parliament. “I saw also at Coleshill, the most complete farmyard that I ever saw, and I believe there is in all England, many and complete as English farm yards are,” Cobbett wrote on a fact finding ride across southern  England in 1826. “And here, too, there is no misery amongst those who do the work,” Cobbett noted when he stopped off to view the Locust trees the Earl of Radnor had brought from him twenty years previously.  “Here all are comfortable; gaunt hunger here stares no man in the face.” The idea of this efficient, split level farmstead came from the Earl of Radnor’s land agent but it was architect George Lamb who designed the ground breaking farmstead.  ...

A blow lamp used to remove old paintwork from dormer windows during renovation work set fire to Coleshill House in September 1952.  Within just four hours the magnificent 17th century building was reduced to a burnt out shell.  All that remained were eight huge chimneys, three of which had recently been renovated at a cost of more than £2,000. Work on Coleshill House began in 1647 when Sir George Pratt began to rebuild his property, which had been, somewhat ironically, destroyed by fire.  But it was his cousin Sir Roger, an architect of some distinction, who called in renowned royal architect Inigo Jones to cast his eye over the site. Sir Mark Pleydell recorded that Sir George’s house was “raised one storey, when Pratt and Jones arriving caused it to be pulled down and rebuilt.” Coleshill was the first house to be built for a ‘minor’ gentleman in the classical manner. The plan of the house combined convenience with advanced designs of architecture.  Innovat...