Lydiard Park - a history lesson and Roger's involvement

Lydiard Park.

Seen from the south Lydiard Park appears to be a rather grand house of the 18th century. Built of Bath stone ashlar, the south-west front has two stories and eleven bays. (fn. 99) The three central bays project slightly and those at either end are raised an additional story to form two towers with pyramidal roofs. Between the towers runs an ornamental stone balustrade, which is interrupted by a large central pediment. In the tympanum is a cartouche carved with the St. John arms with an escutcheon of Furnese. The entrance door and two of the ground-floor windows are also pedimented. The south-east front is of similar design but without the pedimented centrepiece.

An inscription in the attics of the house records that it was rebuilt in 1743 by John, Viscount St. John (d. 1748), who married Anne Furnese, a wealthy heiress. But in fact the house was only in part remodelled at this date, as is immediately seen by looking at it from the back, where building of various earlier dates is visible. A small drawing of the house as it was in c. 1700, (fn. 100) coupled with examination of the interior structure, confirms that this was so and that the remodelling was applied to a house with a basically late-medieval plan, which had been extensively altered and enlarged in the 17th century. The original house consisted of a central hall block with screens passage flanked by projecting kitchen and solar wings to the west and east respectively. Small additions at either end of the house in order to enlarge the two wings were apparently made in the 17th century, and in the same century the kitchen quarters were further extended by a range of buildings at the back. By c. 1700 there was also a substantial service wing running south-westwards from the west side of the house. This has entirely disappeared. In 1743 by building a new south-west front, which filled in the recessed central part of the earlier house, Sir John St. John provided a much grander entrance and an enlarged hall. 

By adding a new south-east front in the same style, Sir John ensured that his house, when seen from the park, had all the appearance of a building in the classical style of his time. The name of Sir John's architect is unknown, although Roger Morris has been suggested. The only addition made to the house since 1743 is a kitchen wing to the west, built in the mid 19th century. In the 1960s this was converted into sleeping accommodation in readiness for the use of Lydiard Park as a conference centre.