Swindon in the Past Lane

Henry Mildmay, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke spent just two months of the year, during the shooting season, at his country home of Lydiard, where it has to be said, he liked it to be above all - quiet. But there was one big spanner in the works - the GWR factory hooter. Originally mounted on 'R' Shop, now the home of STEAM railway museum, the hooter had a range of between 12 to 15 miles, reaching the far flung corner of Lydiard Park, and sounding at various times throughout the day. It was the early morning calls at 5.15, 5.45 andd 6am to which Lord Bolingbroke particularly objected, claiming a subsequent lack of sleep was jeopardising his weak heart. Henry began his campaign to silence the hooter in 1868 and succeeded in persuading the GWR to construct a screen around the offending instrument, thereby muting the sound. However, after complaints by the workmen, the screen was eventually removed, but Henry refused to concede defeat. On January 9, 1873 he presented an 11 p...

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon first published in The Times September 1914 following the Battle of the Marne Scenes from the Field of Remembrance at Lydiard Park. Children from Corsham Primary School Sally Challoner from BBC Points West

Was Richard Woolford motivated by criminal intent or poverty when he picked up his gun and headed off for Lord Bolingbroke’s land one winter’s night in 1834? Records show that Richard was charged with ‘having in the night together with a great number of other persons armed with guns, and other unlawful weapons entered a certain coppice belonging to the right honourable Lord Viscount Bolingbroke for the purpose of destroying game at Lydiard Tregoze.’ At the time of Richard’s arrest, Robert Hiscocks was the gamekeeper at the Lydiard Park estate, a position subsequently filled by his son Harry who worked alongside him in the second half of the 19 th  century.  Sporting rights across the estate were protected in the farm leases and the duties of the Lydiard Park gamekeeper included the rearing of his lordships pheasants.   Victorian gamekeepers were known to shoot at anything that threatened the birds under their protection. Richard, a 21 year old labourer ...

Staff and volunteers have decked the hall with boughs of holly and Lydiard House is all dressed up for a Victorian Christmas. But how did an earlier branch of the family celebrate the festive season? Custodians of the 17th century Lydiard House were Sir Walter St John and his wife Lady Johanna. In 1652 the austere Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, abolished Christmas all together and for eight years the people of Britain had little celebrate. However, with the restoration of the merry making monarch Charles II in 1660 it was party time again and records show that plans for Christmas at Lydiard House in 1661 were well underway by October. "I doe intend gd wiling to be at Cristmas at Lidiard," wrote Lady Johanna St John from the couple's London home in Battersea to Thomas Hardyman her steward at Lydiard. Ahead of the festivities Lady Johanna instructs Hardyman to brew 40 gallons of ale "so that it may be a month old before we begin it." However the ...

In 1966 Wiltshire County Planning Department conducted a survey of rural settlements in the Swindon countryside.  The area of Shaw and Washpool had one general store, a pub and a doctor's surgery.  There was a daily bus service into Swindon, roughly 5 miles away, and the settlement was on mains water and electricity, but had no gas.  The council had granted planning permission for two dwellings, which would increase the population by approximately six people. In the 1970s boundary changes extended the Swindon western limits to include the surrounding farmland up as far as Lydiard Park and the villages of Shaw and Nine Elms.  Factories, schools, shopping centres and thousands of homes were planned for this rural backwater. Shaw resident Mr Bill Selby 75, whose family history in the village stretched back 300 years, was pictured leaning on the village sign. "I think I shall buy a caravan and move away," he told the local press.  "All the green fields wh...

The Windmill Hill Business Park in West Swindon with its futuristically designed buildings, opened to great acclaim in 1984. The area owes its name to the presence of a windmill in the vicinity, although not the one that stands in the Business Park today, which originally came from Chiseldon. Built in 1823, next to the cemetery on Butts Road, Chiseldon, the mill passed out of use in around 1892.  After that it was used as a stable and for storage purposes, until the St. Martin's Property group began reconstruction at the Windmill Hill site in January 1984. A building more authentic to the area is the former Marsh farmhouse presently used as office accommodation. The 101-acre dairy farm, once part of the Lydiard Park Estate, belonged to the St. John family.  The tithe map apportionments, produced in 1841, record ancient field names such as The Shannells and Picks Mead. Early 19th century Rate Books reveal that William Dore, founder of the ...