Swindon in the Past Lane

Did you know that our neck of the woods was once just that - part of a wood, a very big wood? And not just any old wood but a Royal forest no less - Braydon Forest. The origins of Braydon Forest date back to the 9th century and a belt of woodland stretching from the Thame Valley to the Vale of Blackmore and known to the Saxons as Sealwudu. The Saxon lords were pretty easy going, it would appear, and then along came the Normans with their system of forest law, courts and officialdom. Braydon became a royal forest by 1135 and in the 13th century it contained an area of some 46 square miles. The forest bounds included not only woodland but fields of arable, meadow and pasture and even villages such as those of Lydiard Tregoze, Lydiard Millicent and Purton. In 1256, during the reign of Henry III the king gave Robert Tregoze 3 bucks and 8 does from Braydon to restock his park at Lydiard Tregoze and in 1270 John Tregoze obtained a royal licence to 'inclose and impark' his woo...

Far be it from me to question the great Richard Jefferies – but I wonder where he got his story from. In 1896 the posthumously published Jefferies Land included a short history of Lydiard Tregoze and the Lydiard Park estate. ‘Lydiard and the neighbourhood are remarkably well wooded. Oak is abundant though it is observed that the trees never reach that enormous size which astonishes one in other localities. There is a curious legend about these oak trees. Ages ago a member of the Bolingbroke family rendered some important service to an English monarch. In return he received a grant of the lands of Lydiard until he should have taken three crops off them, after which they were to revert to the Crown. The wily nobleman had the lands sown with acorns and hazel nuts, which shot up into oaks and hazel woods, and the Bolingbrokes have not cleared their first crop yet. Such is the story.’ Jefferies Land - A History of Swindon and its Environs By the late Richard Jefferies Publ...