Lydiard Tregoze
| Lydiard Tregoze | |
|---|---|
 St Mary's, Lydiard Tregoze | |
| Population | 495 (in 2011)[1] |
| OS grid reference | SU105847 |
| Civil parish |
|
| Unitary authority | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Swindon |
| Postcode district | SN4, SN5 |
| Dialling code | 01793 |
| Police | Wiltshire |
| Fire | Dorset and Wiltshire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| UK Parliament | |
Lydiard Tregoze is a small village and civil parish on the western edge of Swindon in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. It has in the past been spelt as Liddiard Tregooze and in many other ways.
The parish includes the small village of Hook and the hamlet of Hook Street.
History
Mentioned in Doomsday as a manor belonging to Alfred of Marlborough Baron of Ewyas and a Tenant-in-Chief to King William I. Near Royal Wootton Bassett, the parish of Lydiard Tregoze was part of the Kingsbridge Hundred, while its village originally centred on the medieval parish church of St Mary and the nearby manor house, Lydiard House, which came to be the home of the St John family, Viscounts Bolingbroke. However, the original village of Lydiard Tregoze disappeared, giving way to the grounds of an important country house, although St Mary's church survives and contains important monuments.[2]
Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, was the stepdaughter of Oliver St John of Lydiard Tregoze. His marriage to her mother, Margaret Beauchamp of Bletso produced six children to whom she remained close throughout her life, and this gave the St Johns considerable influence at Court in the early decades of the Tudor dynasty.
In 1615, Lucy St John, daughter of Sir John St John of Lydiard Tregoze, married Sir Allen Apsley, one of the founders of the New England Company.[3] In 1644, Anne St John of Lydiard, the daughter of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet, married Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, a leading Royalist during the English Civil War. Anne St John was the grandmother of Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield.
Parish registers survive from 1666 and are kept in the Wiltshire and Swindon Archives.[4]
In 1801, the total population of the parish was 578, in 1901 it was 618, and in 1971 549.[5]
John Bartholomew's Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887) describes Lydiard Tregoze as: "Liddiard Tregooze, par. and vil., Wilts, 1 mile SE. of Liddiard Millicent, 5142 ac., pop. 660."[6]
Lydiard Tregoze is one of two suggested locations for the 9th century Battle of Ellandun.
Lydiard House
Lydiard House was the home of the St John family for more than five hundred years. In 1943, the local authority, the Corporation of Swindon, bought the then dilapidated house and its overgrown park from the estate trustees, to whom the house had been left after the death of the dowager Viscountess Bolingbroke in 1940. Almost none of the original furnishings then remained. In the 1950s, the Corporation began to collect suitable contents for the house, aiming in particular to restore the 18th century State Rooms. These efforts were much helped in 1955 when some good furniture arrived on loan from the National Art Collections Fund, part of the E. E. Cook bequest. During the 1960s Lord Bolingbroke loaned several St John family portraits to the house and later sold them to the Corporation. When he died in 1975, he bequeathed to the trustees of the house everything he owned which had come from it.
Lydiard House now belongs to Swindon Borough Council, the successor of the former Corporation.[7] Open to the public, the house now has a significant art collection, and one room has fine painted panels by Lady Diana Beauclerk.
Notable people
- Sir John St John, 1st Baronet
- Anne Wilmot, Countess of Rochester
- Sir Walter St John, 3rd Baronet
- Henry St John, 1st Viscount St John
- Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke
- Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke
- George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke
- Henry St John, 4th Viscount Bolingbroke, 5th Viscount St John
- Henry St John, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke
- Vernon Henry St John, 6th Viscount Bolingbroke
Transport
The Wilts & Berks Canal (1810-1914) crossed the parish. The Great Western Main Line railway follows a similar route; there are no local stations, the nearest being Swindon. Between 1840 and 1841, as the railway was being built in stages from London, a temporary terminus known as Wootton Bassett Road was at Hay Lane.[8]
The M4 motorway also crosses the parish, where Junction 16 provides routes to West Swindon, Royal Wootton Bassett and Wroughton.
References
- ^ "Wiltshire Community History - Census". Wiltshire Council. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
- ^ 'Lydiard Tregoze', Victoria County History of Wiltshire, Volume 9: Kingsbridge Hundred (1970), pp. 75-90 at www.british-history.ac.uk
- ^ New England Charter at yale.edu
- ^ Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire, England at genuki.org.uk
- ^ Lydiard Tregoze at visionofbritain.org.uk
- ^ Liddiard Millicent extract at visionofbritain.org.uk
- ^ Lydiard House & Park at oodwooc.co.uk
- ^ Historic England. "Wootton Bassett Road Station (1334090)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 3 March 2015.
External links
- Lydiard Tregoze at Google Maps
- St Mary, Lydiard Tregoze, Wiltshire at oodwooc.co.uk, with photographs
- St John family at tudorplace.com.ar