Heritage

About Our Heritage

Step into St. Mary’s Church and you immediately feel its 1000 year history and the influence of the St. John family who owned Lydiard Park for 500 years up until 1943. It’s in the medieval walls, the Jacobean carved pews, the painted glass windows and spectacular family monuments.

The church holds up a mirror to view England’s wider history. Thomas Beckett’s dreadful murder is here, recorded in medieval wall paintings now being conserved. The radical church changes brought about by the Protestant Reformation saw those images as idolatry and they were painted over. The tragedy of the English Civil War is represented by Lydiard’s Golden Cavalier monument and the First World War in its Book of Remembrance.

No wonder visitors from around the world come to see St Mary’s rare treasures and to retrace the footsteps of our ancestors.

St. John Family Monuments

In the early 17^th century Sir John St. John undertook far reaching work to remodel the church, constructing a family chapel and a series of monuments to display his family pedigree and prestige. He employed leading artists of the day to create the beautiful east window, the splendid polyptych with its heraldic and genealogical panels and monuments to his sister and notorious brother in law Giles Mompesson. A monument to himself and his two wives barely fits into the chapel! Sir John’s last commission, The Golden Cavalier, shows his beloved son Edward who died at Lydiard from wounds he received fighting for the King at the 2^nd Battle of Newbury.

Friends of Lydiard Park

The Friends of Lydiard Park charity has played a key role in conserving St Mary’s heritage. Dedicated to the conservation and enhancement of Lydiard House and Park, the Wiltshire-based organisation has an active US branch.

For further information and access to detailed research and publications visit our website.