Our Spring Meeting celebrates Lydiard House's opening to the public in 1955 where we’ll be sharing some wonderful photographs from the period, highlighting our 2025 projects and enjoying afternoon tea together. Please RSVP to [email protected]
Celebrate the season with the Friends' Christmas Party as we raise a glass of bubbly, enjoy home-made mince pies, and perhaps indulge in a little drama!
Author Talk, Lunch and Book Signing: Join Elizabeth St.John, bestselling author of The Lydiard Chronicles and The Godmother’s Secret, as she presents her critically acclaimed new historical fiction novel, The King’s Intelligencer. Travel back with Elizabeth to 17th-century Lydiard Park, meet the family intelligencers, and join the discovery of the missing Princes in the Tower.
An illustrated talk and celebration in words and song of acclaimed nature writer Richard Jefferies and Vernon St.John, Lydiard’s last Lord and lifelong naturalist.
The Friends of Lydiard Park and Lydiard’s small team of dedicated gardeners are teaming up for a big Autumn tidy, cutting back spent plants around the garden’s historic fruit trees and enjoying a seasonal lunch together.
Free Admission: Lydiard Park and St. Mary’s Church have inspired Billy’s work over many years and he continues to create a wide range of paintings and other art forms that capture the history and mystery of its rich heritage.
The Friends of Lydiard Park and Lydiard’s small team of dedicated gardeners are teaming up to create a beautiful Tulip and Spring flower display in the borders of the Walled Garden next year.
The Friends of Lydiard Park and Lydiard’s small team of dedicated gardeners are teaming up to create a beautiful Tulip and Spring flower display in the borders of the Walled Garden next year.
Enchanting music from the Goddard Ensemble specially chosen to celebrate the natural world in the beautiful surroundings of the great hall of Lydiard House, plus a complimentary drink and canapes served on the terrace.
We do hope you can make this special on-line meeting and we can all put more names to faces, both near and far. We will be sharing our exciting projects and events for 2024, and look forward to seeing you online.
A wonderful opportunity to visit the dairy farm that Elliot Woolford records in his fascinating diaries,1896-1940, and today provides a dedicated supply of milk to Waitrose Supermarkets.
Guest speaker, the military historian and author Christopher Jary joins Lydiard Friends’ Chair, Sarah Finch-Crisp, to reveal Vernon St.John’s wartime story; fighting with the 6th Dorsets at Passchendaele through the grim autumn of 1917 and facing the German spring offensive on the Somme in 1918.
An event for families, foodies and plant enthusiasts. Discover over thirty different varieties of heritage apples from Golden Knob to Colonel Vaughan. Meet Lead Gardener Andy Dyer to find out more about their history; taste the apples, enjoy traditional apple games and sample Lydiard's delicious cider and apple juice.
On Tuesday 18th July 2023 we will be visiting Sudeley Castle. Invitation letter has been sent to members. A copy can be found on the Members' Area of the website. You can also contact [email protected]
With music specially chosen from across the centuries to reflect Lydiard's history, the acclaimed Dodecantus chamber choir will perform in the elegant surroundings of the Main Hall.
Our Spring Meeting is a great chance to catch up with news and enjoy a fabulous homemade tea. 'The Lydiard Chronicles' author and prize winning novelist, Elizabeth St.John will be our guest speaker.
Referencing the St.John’s of Lydiard Park, family historian Sonia St.John provides a fascinating guide to the meaning of DNA test results and what they can tell you.
Our annual Spring Meeting is a great opportunity to catch up with news, find out about our latest projects and enjoy a special talk by local historian and writer Frances Bevan.
If you have family connections with Lydiard Park and the parish of Lydiard Tregoze this is a chance to share your memories and explore The Lydiard Archives with Friends of Lydiard Park Chair Sarah Finch-Crisp and fellow volunteers.
Local historian and writer Frances Bevan in conversation with author Nicola Cornick to celebrate the launch of Frances’s new book ‘The Ladies of Lydiard’.
Horticulturalist and garden historian Margie Hoffnung takes a light-hearted look at the many aspects of gardens through the ages which might tempt people to visit them
Medieval historian Dr Lynda Pidgeon explores the relationship between King Henry VII’s devoted mother Margaret and members of her extended family; a care for her blood relations which sometimes conflicted with concern for her son.
Explore the abandoned State Rooms and servants' quarters with former Keeper of Lydiard House and Park, Sarah Finch-Crisp. Drawing on rare photographs and the words and voices of post war occupants, discover the lost world of a mansion in decay.
Nicola Cornick, archivist for the Romantic Novelists’ Association, discusses the Georgian love story of Frederick St John and Arabella Craven. From the ballrooms of London to piracy on the high seas, Frederick and Arabella’s story encompasses all the adventure, glamour and scandal of the Georgian age.
Conservation Architect Michael Gray explores the radical remodelling of Lydiard House in the 18th Century, the family tensions that accompanied it and how the old medieval manor house can still be traced within the Palladian mansion we know today.
Author Elizabeth St. John travels to Cromwell’s Commonwealth as Anne St.John Wilmot, Lady Rochester, secretly conspires with the Sealed Knot to restore King Charles to England’s throne.
Author Nicola Cornick looks at the life and work of Lady Diana Beauclerk and considers how the time she spent living at Lydiard House influenced her art.
Author Elizabeth St.John brings a new perspective to one of the world’s most famous castles and prisons – The Tower of London and her ancestress Lucy St. John.
An international symposium at Nottingham Castle. Keynote speakers include Friends of Lydiard Park ambassador Elizabeth St. John talking about how Lucy Hutchinson’s royalist family, the St. Johns, impacted her puritan reality.
Stephen Slater, author and fellow of the Heraldry Society of England, reveals a hidden language of fabulous beasts, symbolic animals and corrugated boiler flues!
