Additional information
Terrain
- Well-defined parkland paths and tracks, one stretch of quiet road
Landscape
- Farmland, parkland, woodland
Dog friendliness
- Can be off lead in country park
Parking
- Free parking at Lydiard Country Park
Toilets en route
- Lydiard Country Park
About the walk
Right on the edge of the modern town of Swindon lies the 244-acre (99ha) Lydiard Park, an easily accessible and delightful buffer against any further westward urban spread. Within the wooded and eminently explorable park is one of Wiltshire's smaller and lesser known stately homes, a Palladian... mansion, the ancestral home of the Viscounts Bolingbroke, and their church, St Mary's, in the village of Lydiard Tregoze. This walk takes you through the park to the edge of the sleepy hamlet of Hook Street, following signposted paths and tracks. Lydiard House and Park The present house, built in 1743, was saved from dereliction by the Swindon Corporation in 1943. Part of the property now serves as a hostel, but the ground floor has been restored to its former 19th-century glory, complete with ornate plasterwork, original family furnishings, a rare painted glass window, portraits of the St John family (the Bolingbrokes) who lived here from Elizabethan times, and lifelike waxwork inhabitants. As one of Wiltshire's smaller stately homes, it has an intimate atmosphere rarely found in larger houses that have opened their doors to the public. Here you have the impression of stepping back in time to pay a social call on wealthy relations, a family, which like many of us, has had its share of ups and downs. Even the park has had its misfortunes; it was used as a prisoner of war camp at the end of World War II and later lost all the fine elm trees, which lined the driveway from 1911, to Dutch elm disease. The Bolingbroke family During the Civil War the Bolingbrokes sided with the losing Royalists and although rewarded during the Restoration were disappointed when Henry St John (1652–1742) was bestowed with the title of a 'mere' Viscount in 1712 rather than becoming an Earl. Rather too close a friendship with France in the early 18th century led to a period of exile for Henry before he received a royal pardon. In 1768 the Second Viscount, Frederick St John, sensationally for the time, divorced his wife, Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough. Further periods of 'absenteeism', this time to Germany, and heavy mortgage liabilities finally saw the break-up of the estate in the 1920s and 1930s. St Mary's Church The church contains a further history of the family in the form of memorials. Family trees, paintings, stained-glass windows and tomb effigies are all in evidence. The most impressive of the latter is The Golden Cavalier, a magnificent, life-size, fully gilded statue of Sir John St John (1585–1648). He emerges from his tent fully clad for one of the Civil War battles. As imposing as he looks one cannot but think of the inner sadness of a man who in that conflict lost his King and three of his sons.
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