Swindon in the Past Lane

Things have been rather quiet of late in the Past Lane but I’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes. First there was Grave Matters, a survey of the churchyard at St. Mary’s, Lydiard Park and the small cemetery at Hook. As part of a team of volunteers I have been working on photographing and collating the inscriptions on the headstones and writing histories of some of the people buried there. The work of the Grave Matters group will contribute to the Project Archives enterprise – for more details visit the Friends of Lydiard Park website. Next came the discovery of the fascinating Woolford diaries. Elliot Woolford farmed at Hook Farm from 1899 until his death in 1941. Throughout that time, he kept a diary, begun in 1892 when as a young man he started his farming career at Bagbury Farm with his brothers Rowland and Charles. The diaries provide a view of everyday life in the rural parish of Lydiard Tregoze during a time of great social change. As might be expected Elliot takes great...

I have just received the most extraordinarily thoughtful present. For many years I have been researching and writing about Swindon Suffragette Edith New, who ranks as one of the most influential suffragettes along with the Pankhurst family and the Kenney sisters. She scored a number of Suffragette firsts - the first to chain herself to railings as a form of protest, the first to break a window (at 10 Downing Street, no less) and the first Suffragette to go on hunger strike in a Scottish prison. My research into the life and times of Edith New has involved giving talks and tours of the places associated with her here in Swindon and I was part of the Swindon Heritage team who installed a blue plaque on the house where she was born in North Street Swindon. Edith was born on March 17, 1877, the youngest surviving child of Frederic James New and his second wife Isabella. Frederic died before Edith's first birthday, struck by a train while walking along the railway line t...

Are you watching A House Through Time  written and presented by historian David Olusoga? Have you been inspired to research the history of your own house? My home in West Swindon was built in the 1980s and while the surrounding area has plenty of fascinating history, the house itself has none. However, the house where I grew up in London has a long history. Built in the 1850s when a property in Brixton was a most desirable residence, 5 St John's Road was the long time residence of the Nicholson family who lived alongside some salubrious neighbours. In 1861 Thomas Quarm lived in a detached property called Rose Villa on the corner where St John's Road met Wiltshire Road. Thomas Quarm was born in Plymouth in about 1815 and had quite a chequered career. But by 1851 he had educated and reinvented himself and was employed as Clerk of Works on that most prestigious of new builds - the Palace of Westminster. On October 16, 1858 the illustrated News of the World reported at grea...

I thought it would be relatively easy to recreate the scene captured by Frederick Nash in c1808 but it has turned out to be quite tricky. Between 1801 and 1809 Nash was among a number of artists who worked with antiquarians John Britton and Edward Wedlake Brayley on a series of books called The Beauties of England and Wales - Delineations, topographical, historical, and descriptive of each county. In c1808 Nash made a visit to Wiltshire to capture a view of Lydiard House. Painter and draughtsman Frederick Nash was born in Lambeth in 1782, the son of a builder. Nash was a member of both the Royal Academy of Arts and the Society of Painters in Watercolours, where between 1810 and 1856 he exhibited 472 drawings in the Water-Colour Society's exhibitions. In 1807 be became architectural draftsman to the Society of Antiquarians and was described by J.M.W. Turner as the greatest architectural artist of his time. Nash moved to 44 Montpelier Road, Brighton in 1834 where he died at on ...

Lydiard Park looked very different when I moved to West Swindon with my young family thirty years ago. For one thing the restored 18th century lake wasn't there. Created by John (Jack) Viscount St John who ploughed his wife's fortune into remodelling Lydiard House and landscaping the grounds, the lake had been lost at the beginning of the 20th century when the dam wall burst. I remember thirty years ago the whole area was - well, I'm not sure exactly what I remember now. I wish I had taken photographs before it was transformed during the Landscape Restoration Project in 2006. Today there is a large play-park behind the Forest Cafe. When my children were young the play-park was slightly removed and in the trees. There was a tall slide with a perilous rocky climb to get back to the top, swings, balancing equipment and a busy zip-line. With the creation of the new play-park, the old one was demolished and the area received a makeover. Today it is an enclosed area for pri...

Nature, red in tooth and claw is very much in evidence on the lakes at Lydiard, and I'm grateful I am not a mother of chicks.  During the Coronavirus lockdown it has been my habit to take an early morning walk through Lydiard Park. I have watched cowslips appear in the churchyard at St Mary's, the wild garlic blossom and the bluebells bob and dance. Red and white campion grow densely down to the waters edge where nature's progress takes little heed of Covid 19. The medieval lake was once a lot more than an ornamental water feature, producing fish for the table. Perfectly camouflaged it provides the water fowl in Lydiard Park a perfect des res in which to nest and raise their young before making an appearance on the 18th century showpiece lake. An Armada of ducklings sail across the water's surface, appearing as a mere blur in my photographs and in recent weeks I have eagerly awaited the emergence of the swans from their island hideway. The only breeding...

Among the 103 Commonwealth War Graves in Radnor Street Cemetery is that of Kenneth W. Scott Browne who died on April 4, 1944 aged 23. Scott-Browne was a member of the King's Own Scottish Borderers 7th Battalion. In November 1943 the 7th Battalion was converted into an Airborne Battalion and began training for the planned Normandy landings. During an exercise code named DREME a Stirling towing a Horsa glider carrying No 3 Platoon hit a tree and crashed. Scott-Browne was one of 34 military personnel killed that day in April 1944. His death was registered in Droxford, Hampshire and his body returned to his home at 85 Medgbury Road, Swindon for burial in Radnor Street Cemetery. As we prepare to commemorate the end of the Second World War in these strange, restrictive Covid-19 conditions, it is perhaps time to remember those who didn't come home 75 years ago. VE Day was a time for rejoicing but not for everyone. While the war in Europe had ended the one in Japan would continue...