In 1837 the St John family was one of the major land and property owners in the parish of Lydiard Tregoze. Along with Lydiard House set in over 200 acres of parkland and various properties in Hook the family owned twelve dairy farms. The farms ranged in size from the twelve acre Hardyman's Farm to 290 acres at Windmill Leaze, the home farm situated at Hook Street on the edge of the parkland.
Country society was a close knit community further strengthened by marriage. Families had intermarried across the generations, as is evident from a glance at the surnames on the Victorian census returns for the parishes of Lydiard Tregoze and Lydiard Millicent.
The Kinchin family farmed at Windmill Leaze from the early 1800s until the end of the century. In 1851 William Kinchin, farmer at Windmill Leaze, married Catherine Plummer, the daughter of Richard and Mary Plummer, Lord Bolingbroke's tenants at East Leaze Farm, Lydiard Millicent. They preserved Plummer in the naming of their sons William John Plummer Kinchin and Thomas Richard Plummer Kinchin.
Windmill Leaze Farm provided Lydiard House with milk, butter, cheese, meat and eggs and Lord Bolingbroke and his houseguests also used the land for shooting parties. The farm is believed to have once been a hunting lodge and was so named because of the views it commanded over nearby Windmill Hill.
Jonas Clarke, father and son farmed at Wick Farm on the other side of the parkland, adjacent to the Rectory, from c.1839 to 1881. Farm accounts dated 1869 reveal that during the month of June, Wick Farm produced an average of three cheeses a day, over 90 in total during that month.
In October of the same year Jonas Clarke junior notes he has 110 cheeses in the cheese room weighing over three tons. The Wick Farm accounts record that Jonas Clarke sold pigs and sheep to John Blackford, a butcher in Swindon.
One of the largest farming families in 19th century Lydiard Tregoze was the Ody family. Able to trace their ancestry in the parish back to the 17th century, the Victorian dynasty began with Noah and Sarah Ody and their family of seven sons and six daughters.
With his large family of sons, Noah worked three farms, Hays Knoll in Purton and Purleys and Flaxlands in Lydiard Tregoze. At the time of the 1841 census Noah can be found at Hays Knoll while his sons George 25, Noah 22 and William 19 are in Lydiard Tregoze with their 17 year old sister Sarah and younger brother Walter, aged 10.
Noah died in 1851 and is buried in the churchyard at St. Mary's with his wife Sarah and their daughter Ann.
By 1871 two of Noah's sons are established in the Lydiard Tregoze farming community. George, who took over Purleys on the death of his father, is now at Wickfield Farm, part of the neighbouring Meux estate. Walter is at Lord Bolingbroke's Flaxlands Farm while brothers Thomas and William are farming in Purton and John and Noah in Brinkworth.
The church was central to rural life and St Mary's contains many references to the tenant farmers. The large boxed pew on the north aisle is where the Midghall tenant Cornelius Bradford and his family worshipped while the stained glass west window was erected in memory of John King, tenant at Blagrove Farm.
The church registers record the major events in the life of the parish, the baptisms, marriages and burials. Letitia, Thomas, Elizabeth, John, Richard and George, six of Walter and Elizabeth Ody's children, were christened at the 13th century font between 1864-1874.
Among the burials in the churchyard are the graves of Richard and Ann Sly, tenants at Padbrook Farm and Abraham Humphries from Marsh Farm.
The tenant farmers were figures of local authority and each family took their responsibilities seriously. As parish ratepayers they attended Vestry meetings, the local governing body of the day, and served as parish officers.
Members of the Kinchin family fulfilled the various parish offices many times over. William Kinchin was elected Churchwarden, Overseer of the Poor and Waywarden between 1875 and 1886 while his son Thomas was churchwarden in the late 1880s.
Walter Ody served as Churchwarden a total of nine times between 1876-1887 and as Overseer of the Poor in 1875. He was also appointed additional Waywarden in 1883 when the parish was considered too large for one person to serve. During the following ten years he was re-elected a further six times.
Charles Day, tenant at Great Chaddington Farm and Henry Reynolds from Flaxlands both served as parish constables in 1846 responsible for keeping law and order in the quiet North Wiltshire backwater.
Walter Ody died aged 64 in 1897 and William Kinchin in 1898 aged 74. When Henry Mildmay St John, 5th Viscount Bolingbroke died the following year he left a neglected estate in disrepair.
Parts of the estate were sold in the 1920s and in 1930 Lady Bolingbroke took the decision to sell off over 1800 acres in what the North Wilts Herald described as 'one of the largest sales held in Swindon for many years.'
Today most of the Lydiard estate farmland lies beneath the 1980s West Swindon housing development, but some of the last owners were the descendants of those Victorian tenant farmers who doffed their caps and paid their dues to the St John family at Lydiard Park.
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| Windmill Leaze Farm, better known today as Park Farm. Photograph courtesy of the Rumming family. |
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| Thomas Kinchin, tenant at Windmill Leaze Farm |
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| The Clarke family grave |
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| Marsh Farm |
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| Abraham Humphries, tenant at Marsh Farm |
If you want to preserve the history of Lydiard Tregoze you may like to join the Friends of Lydiard Park and sign the petition.
