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The past is a foreign country ...
Lady Johanna St John's 1680 book of pills, potions and plasters is a rare survivor of the type of manual every well to do 17th century woman compiled. A collection of recipes recorded for their...
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A portrait of Mary Tuckey
Mary Tuckey, spinster, died in 1837, before the advent of photography, and how I wish there was an image of her.I can imagine her seated at her dressing table beside the carved worked bed with the...
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VE Day 75th Anniversary
Among the 103 Commonwealth War Graves in Radnor Street Cemetery is that of Kenneth W. Scott Browne who died on April 4, 1944 aged 23.Scott-Browne was a member of the King's Own Scottish Borderers 7th...
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Lydiard Wildlife
Nature, red in tooth and claw is very much in evidence on the lakes at Lydiard, and I'm grateful I am not a mother of chicks. During the Coronavirus lockdown it has been my habit to take an early...
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St John Hollow
Lydiard Park looked very different when I moved to West Swindon with my young family thirty years ago. For one thing the restored 18th century lake wasn't there. Created by John (Jack) Viscount St John...
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Lydiard House and Park c1808
I thought it would be relatively easy to recreate the scene captured by Frederick Nash in c1808 but it has turned out to be quite tricky.Between 1801 and 1809 Nash was among a number of artists who...
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A House Through Time
Are you watching A House Through Time written and presented by historian David Olusoga? Have you been inspired to research the history of your own house?My home in West Swindon was built in the 1980s...
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Frances Jane New
I have just received the most extraordinarily thoughtful present. For many years I have been researching and writing about Swindon Suffragette Edith New, who ranks as one of the most influential...
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The Ladies of Lydiard
Things have been rather quiet of late in the Past Lane but I’ve been pretty busy behind the scenes.First there was Grave Matters, a survey of the churchyard at St. Mary’s, Lydiard Park and the small...
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Easter Sunday Walk
Swindon is an interesting town – no, honestly it is. From medieval market town to Victorian industrial hub, Swindon had members of the aristocracy living at Lydiard House and innovative engineers in...
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Are we nearly there yet?
It's never too early to introduce your grandchildren to history - even if they really, really don't want to know!When my daughter said she’d never walked along the canal, I immediately went into local...
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Book deal at the Library Shop
So, what or where are you most looking forward to revisiting as lockdown eases. I can't wait for the record offices and especially Local Studies in Swindon Central Library to re-open. I have documents...
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Swindon - A Peep at the Past
You won’t find this little book promoted all over social media, which is perhaps a shame. But that wasn’t why it was written. I know we all say our opus magnum has been a labour of love, but for...
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Lady's Nightcap and Witches' Thimbles
Is it my imagination but this year are the bluebells more abundant, more beautiful than in previous seasons. I am discovering them alongside verges, in secluded patches of woodland and in Lydiard...
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Isabella Horsley Mayo
For me no trip to a country house or stately home is complete without a visit to the local church and a walk around the churchyard. So, following my tour of Avebury Manor and the Art in the Garden...
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Local History Hero - Andy Binks
Local history stalwart Roy Cartwright recently posted an article on Facebook in praise of the Local Studies Collection in Swindon Central Library, which gave me an idea. Over the next few weeks I...
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Field of Remembrance
Preparation for this year's Royal Wootton Bassett Field of Remembrance gets underway at Lydiard Park today. The 2019 Field of Remembrance opens in the historic 18th century Walled Garden at Lydiard...
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Local History Hero - Noel Beauchamp
And now a shout out for Noel Beauchamp, the third member of our Radnor Street Cemetery team. Noel has a knack of finding some fascinating cemetery stories. His latest one to air was that of Frederick...
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Local History Hero - Mark Sutton
The first time I went to one of Mark's Great War talks I came away feeling as if I personally knew the men he had mentioned. He told the story of the battles they fought in and the ones that claimed...
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Local History Hero - Graham Carter
So while we're on the subject of Swindon Heritage I'd like to mention former editor Graham Carter. In case you missed it, Swindon Heritage was a quarterly magazine for lovers of local history and was...
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An eighteenth century tour of Swindon
When Ambrose Goddard married Sarah Williams it involved a lot of legal man hours and a very large document. The Marriage Settlement dated 12 August 1776 reads like a tour of eighteenth century Swindon...
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So, who were they all?
A church has stood in the Lawn, the site of the former Goddard family home, since the 12th century. All that remains standing today is the chancel and three pairs of piers which once flanked the nave....
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My neck of the woods
Did you know that our neck of the woods was once just that - part of a wood, a very big wood? And not just any old wood but a Royal forest no less - Braydon Forest. The origins of Braydon Forest date...
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Art in the Garden
Was this a good idea, I asked myself as I left Swindon in a deluge to visit the Art in the Garden exhibition at Avebury Manor? In 2011 Avebury Manor was the subject of a unique BBC and National Trust...
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Who was Dr John St John?
I was busy researching the life and times of Henrietta St John, a sad story of 18th century double standards set against a backdrop of letters and gardening. Henrietta’s so say ‘platonic’ relationship...
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