A SEAT WITH A VIEW - THE LAWNS, SWINDON

I was leading Worship at Church this morning when unfortunately, the technology decided to “play up”.  However, it was soon fixed and we had a great service with a thought-provoking sermon.  If you are interested in watching the video I made last year and used again today, you can see it here.

As you know, we often go out after the service searching for dereliction, but whilst helping afterwards with the clearing up, I spoke to someone who said that a carving was being done on one of the tree trunks, where a tree had obviously fallen, so as it was so hot, we decided that we would go and look for this before heading back home.  You can see this at the top right of the collage - we aren’t quite sure what this will be eventually but it looked a little like an otter. 

Mr. HCB spotted that there was a seat nearby, and mentioned that we hadn’t thought of The Lawns as a place to use in my Seat With a View challenge, so I decided to take more photographs and incorporate them into my Blip for today.  

This area, in the older part of Swindon, is known as The Lawns, and for six generations was the family estate of the Goddard family.  There was a very large house in the park known as “Swindon House” until about 1850 when it became known as “The Lawn”.  The grounds included an arboretum, lawns, artificial lakes and ornamental gardens and was used for entertaining, garden parties and fêtes.

Major Fitzroy Pleydell Goddard, a diplomat and the last of the male line of the Goddard family, inherited the house from his father, Ambrose Lethbridge Goddard.  The Major, who had no heir, died in 1927 and his widow, Eugenia Kathleen, left Swindon in 1931.  The house remained empty until it was requisitioned and occupied by British and American forces during World War II - but unfortunately, considerable damage was caused to the property whilst in control of the Army and it was purchased by Swindon Corporation in 1947 for £16,000.  

By 1952, the house itself was derelict and in a dangerous state so was demolished following a fire;  there are now just a few walls remaining in part of the garden - in the middle top photograph, can be seen stone steps that lead to the sunken garden.  We passed lots of blackberry bushes in the grounds and although they were flowering, there wasn’t much sign of any fruit, mainly we thought because of the very hot weather and minimal rain in the past few weeks.

The whole area, minus the house, is now a large park with two lakes and many mature and beautiful trees and is a very popular place for locals to walk.  The original Swindon Parish Church, Holy Rood, is partly in ruins, with just the chancel remaining - and this is used on just a few occasions in the year, but is normally locked otherwise.

As usual, Mr. HCB is sitting on the Seat With a View in the middle of the collage, looking out over Swindon towards Shrivenham and Watchfield, and although it was hazy, we could see the Wind Farm at Watchfield.  To his right are two stone pillars, which are obviously old gateposts, leading to some steps, so I got him to stand at the top of the steps, so that I could take a photograph.  I could imagine the carriages drawing up here and the gentlemen and ladies walking through the woodland area to the big house - what a sight that must have been!

In the middle and bottom left of the collage is the gazebo, built of Portland stone and set on top of a mound with the remains of what is thought to be an ice house underneath.  It is now unfortunately blocked up, so we weren’t able to go inside, but we could walk all round it.  Talk about a sign of the times though, there was a cardboard box, which can be seen just above the semi-circle of bricks - perhaps one of the entrances into the ice house - filled with empty wine and beer bottles, which begs the question, “Why can’t people take their rubbish home?”

Mr. HCB used to play in The Lawns when he was a child and we have walked through the woodland many times as we used to live quite near, and having seen this carving, we will be going back from time to time to see if it has been finished - and when it is, you can be sure that I will Blip it again.

“You don’t stumble upon 
     your heritage;
          it’s there,
               just waiting to be
                    explored and shared.”
Robbie Robertson