Swindon in the Past Lane

I really thought my Ody family obsession was a thing of the past; a guilty, not so private pleasure. I'd written a school's project for Brookfield School with  a copy for Lower Shaw Farm , because yes, an Ody family once lived there too, along with numerous articles including one for the Friends of Lydiard Tregoz annual report. I had stopped tracking down people online and I no longer trawled through local history books for any reference to the Odys. I honestly thought I was over it all. Yes, occasionally I felt stirrings, the odd itch or twitch, but it would pass. Then earlier this week I made a reference to Walter Ody in a blogpost about the Hook Burial Ground, and I'm back in the grip. Readers have contacted me in their dozens - well three actually, but so intense is my obsession that I'm experiencing a full blown Ody episode. For me it all began with the weathered headstone in the churchyard at St Mary's Lydiard Tregoze and as the saying goes, the rest...

"There've been Odys farming in North Wilts for five hundred years," local resident Harold Ody proudly told Elspeth Huxley when she was writing her book  Gallipot Eyes – a Wiltshire Diary,  about Oaksey village in 1975. With such well established roots, Swindon based Ody family historians have a head start with local parish registers available on microfiche at Swindon Central Library and the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre in Chippenham. Early parish records for St Mary's Church at Lydiard Tregoze reveal Richard Ody confirming the appointment of the churchwardens in 1742.  It was his descendant Noah Ody, who with the help of his wife Sarah, populated many of the local farms. Noah and his sons were tenants, at various times during the 19th century, at Hayes Knoll and Bagbury Farms in Purton, Haxmoor in Purton Stoke, Braydon, Marsh, Flaxlands and Glebe Farms in Lydiard Tregoze and Lower Shaw Farm in the parish of Lydiard Millicent.  It was the couple's ...