Seventy years ago, on May 14th 1955, Swindon Corporation threw open the doors of Lydiard House, inviting the public to view the State Rooms for the first time. One shilling and sixpence for adults and nine pence for children bought you a ticket to cross the threshold of this once private mansion. A grainy film records those first Swindon visitors, curious to see the country house that had been rescued in their name.
David Murray John, Town Clerk of Swindon 1937 -1974
The official opening was a triumph for the council. Against all the odds they had managed to acquire Lydiard House during World War II, later securing government grants towards its restoration. Despite postwar rationing of supplies and all the challenges that beset the council at that time the Palladian House and its beautiful State Rooms were rescued from likely demolition. Country Life Magazine reported:
‘The opening last Saturday of Lydiard Park, Wiltshire, crowns twelve years enlightened effort on the part of a municipal Corporation and is concrete evidence of the widening appreciation of historic houses role in the county’s cultural life. The home of the St.Johns outwardly an exquisite Georgian mansion dating from 1743-9 was bought in 1943 by Swindon, professedly with the intention of its becoming an asset to the town but actually, it cannot but be felt, because the councillors were moved by the enthusiasm of Mr. Murray John, their clerk, not to stand by and see so much of beauty and history destroyed’
The very first visitor brochure includes images of the house by Country Life Magazine in 1948 and draws on an evocative radio broadcast by Sir Hugh Casson, first broadcast on the B.B.C. Home Service in September 1953. Casson describes:
‘the dining-room, with its columned screen and on its walls the ghostly shadow stains of long-vanished pictures, which from their shape must surely have been family portraits and romantic Italian landscapes; the drawing-room, with its faded scarlet-damask papered walls and gilded mirrors..’
When the House opened to the public two years later pictures and furnishings had been loaned by the Marquis of Lansdown while his home at Bowood was undergoing repair, but the task of creating a permanent collection had already begun. The little brochure informed visitors that ‘Although the Mansion at Lydiard has been saved, much work remains to be completed. In particular, the Corporation (Swindon Council), with the help of private and public bodies, is now engaged in the task of furnishing the building’.
The Drawing Room c 2000
With the State Rooms now beautifully furnished it is hard to imagine the vast empty rooms vacated by the St. John family. Much of the original contents of the rooms have been traced and returned, including portraits dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth 1. And the story is not over, each year new items from portraits to family memorabilia are added to the collection.
In 2025 The Friends of Lydiard Park will be celebrating this remarkable achievement with a series of talks and tours as well as new additions to The Lydiard Archives of historic household inventories and furniture. And watch out for an intriguing exhibition opening in Lydiard House this year to discover areas of the building you can’t normally see.