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In December 2003 Heritage Lottery Fund awarded Swindon Borough Council £430,000 to undertake vital development work to support the restoration of Lydiard Park. This work will support a second bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a further £3 million in January 2005. If successful this will enable full restoration works to begin.

The most dramatic change proposed for the Lydiard Park Project is the restoration of the lost lake and major improvements to the current upper lake. Together these lakes will, once again, create a beautiful setting to the house and park and a haven for wildlife. This dramatic 3-D image has been released showing the lost lake as seen from the perspective of the bridge. This picture accurately reflects the design plans for the lower lake which are based on detailed investigative studies including a full topographical survey, historic map references and wildlife considerations such as the reed bed.

On July 9th around 300 secondary school pupils from Greendown , Kingsdown Churchfields, Crowdys Hill, and St Lukes schools in Swindon took part in a special Living History Project designed to inspire pupils with hands-on activities, costumed interpreters and talks from experts bringing to life the history of Lydiard Park in the 17th Century. Pupils came face to face with a Civil War Cavalry man on horseback and a Musket man, learned how to use a pike and discovered the stories behind the portraits in the house, the monuments in the church, and travel on the ancient road through the park. A group of pupils also got the chance to get their hands dirty and discover history as they joined in the excavations with Wessex Archaeology. The Living History Project was made possible with funding from the Ernest Cook Trust who are supporting education involvement in The Lydiard Park Project. Cllr Nick Martin, Chair of the Lydiard Park Project Board commented : " I am delighted that so many local secondary school children are discovering the rich history of Lydiard Park in such an imaginative way and that they are directly benefiting from the exciting restoration project developments".

You can download the Summer 2005 Newsletter
Click below to download the front and back pages in PDF file format
right mouse click then pick "save target as" to download the front and rear pages
Click below to download the centre spread pages in PDF file format
right mouse click then pick "save target as" to download the centre spread pages

In December Sir Neil Cossons, Chairman of English heritage and Cllr. Derek Benfield the Mayor of Swindon , hosted a celebration at Lydiard House to mark the 60th anniversary of the purchase of Lydiard Park by the Corporation in 1943. The event drew together many organisations and individuals who have supported Lydiard over the years and who look forward to the parkland restoration.

Around five thousand people turned out on a sunny weekend to watch demonstrations by The Sealed Knot who had set up a Royalist garrison on the lawns of Lydiard Park. Regular canon and musket fire reverberated round the park which is believed to have been a Royalist garrison in the Civil War.

Volunteers from RWE Innogy’s headquarters in Swindon joined Wessex Archaoelogy and Time Team’s Phil Harding for the day, to excavate the 18th Century walled garden. The Innogy group activity is one of a series which involves a wide variety of interested societies and organisations in the archaeological investigations.

English Heritage are currently undertaking a full archaeological survey of Lydiard Park. With a theodolite they are taking measurements with millimetre accuracy from which it is possible to draw a map of all the archaeological features within the park. Other methods employed range from the traditional, using tape measurements, to the sophisticated, using the lastest Global Positioning System satellite maping equipment.
The team has so far recorded about half of the grassed area in front of Lydiard House leading down to the lost lakes and a substantial part of the wooded area to the North West of the House. Initial analysis of the survey results suggest the traces of late 17th Century formal gardens survive in the lawns of Lydiard House. New discoveries could change the interpretation but at the moment it seems that we could be tracing the lost gardens of the enthusiast amateur gardener Lady Johanna St. John.

Staff at the University of the West of England have developed this website application. It will be regularly updated as the project progresses and as archaeological investigations and research continue to produce new information.

In June Lydiard Park received a £30,000 boost from the Government funded Arts and business New Partners Scheme. It is the biggest award the agency has ever made and recognised the pioneering new partnership between the Council and West Swindon based energy supplier Innogy plc.
Innogy have invested over £100,000 in the Lydiard project some of which is being used to finance the current archaeological investigations in the park.

Restoration plans and information about the current archaeological investigations by Wessex Archaeology can be seen in the Lydiard Park Visitor Centre. You can also see an exhibition about the purchase of Lydiard Park by Swindon Corporation in 1943 which includes early views of the unrestored mansion.

In March eighteen representatives of a range of community interests spent a day at Lydiard examining and discussing the restoration proposals and plotting the benefits of the project for the people of Swindon and the region. The group included park users and volunteers, the Police, Probation and Health Services, members of St.Mary’s Church Lydiard Tregoze, Postive Living Swindon, Innogy plc, Greendown School, the University of Bath in Swindon, The University of the 3rd Age and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust. The workshop was funded by The Countryside Agency.

In February 2004 Swindon Services started the project works by removing scrub from the dam wall vicinity and 18th Century boat house site. Following this Npower volunteers from the RWE Innogy company group cleared vegetation from the wall. This has enabled a detailed photographic survey, archaeological and structural investigations to begin.

Swindon Council have appointed Nicholas Pearson Associates to undertake the highly specialised restoration programme. The project team skills include historic landscape architecture, conservation and design, structural engineering, historic lake works and horticulture and access. Their task is to work out how the restoration of the principal park features can be achieved.
Led by historic landscape architect Simon Bonvoisin, who has successfully advised on the restoration of Hestercombe Gardens in Somerset and Trebah Gardens in Cornwall, the team are involved in a wide range of events and public consultaltion.

Greendown Community School borders Lydiard Park and the school is poised to become fully involved in the Lydiard Project. In February Sonia St.John of Europhile Technology Consultants presented a £5,000 computer package to aid students’ research. The package will be tried and tested by Greendown students prior to distribution to all participating Swindon schools.

In January this year Swindon Borough Council lodged a bid with The Heritage Lottery Fund to restore the historic landscape of Lydiard Park and upgrade visitor facilities on the site.
Heritage Lottery Fund are currently studying our application and have visited the park to meet Council officers, teachers, local people and partners from key national agencies and the business community. A decision is anticipated this Atutumn and in the meantime project activities continue to attract interest and increasing public involvement.

The project is benefiting from a pioneering inititative with the Council’s principal business partners, leading energy supplier RWE npower, who are based at Windmill Hill Business Park. The company has seconded Alan Smith, a highly experienced member or their core management team, who is working alongside Lydiard Park Project Officer and Borough Officers, to successfully progress the restoration scheme.
Cllr Nick Martin, Chair of the Lydiard Park Project Board said " The Lydiard project shows clear evidence of a renewed commitment by Swindon Borough Council to restoring its historic heritage and is a vigorous example of our partnership with local industry."

St.Mary’s Church, Lydiard Tregoze, was recently featured in a Channel 4 TV programme on the history of English Churches presented by distinguished journalist Simon Jenkins. Lydiard’s Church was chosen due to the quality of its 17th Century monuments to the St.John family. Simon Jenkins awards the church 3 stars in his best selling book "England’s Thousand Best Churches" and 3 stars for Lydiard House in his subsequent best seller "England’s Thousand Best Houses".

In 2001 The Countryside Agency chose Lydiard Park as one of three pilot projects, part of a national initiative to bring about a renaissance of country Parks in Britain. The Lydiard Park conservation and rescue plan 2003 has been funded by The Countryside Agency and sets out proposals for a seven year plan to restore Lydiard park to its former glory.