Tea with digestives: April 2016

Lydiard House is located in Lydiard Park, Swindon. The Palladian style house with Georgian features and land was owned by the Vicount Bolingbroke for several centuries until the costs of upkeep became too high. It is now owned by Swindon Borough Council who renovated it and opened it as a public museum with the surrounding park open as a public park.

Lydiard House

Library

Dining Room

Table setting arrangement

Dummy cut out, these were commonly included in living spaces to give the illusion of there being people in the house at all times, to deter burglers and give a full house appearance

Sideboard in the dining room with display bowls

Drawing Room portraits and photographs

Tea was drunk in the Drawing room, tea cups and tea pot

Afternoon tea in the drawing room was a practice that was popularised in the early 19th century by the Duchess of Bedford who, in need of an afternoon 'pick me up' , began to take a pot of tea and a light snack in her private rooms at Woburn Abbey. She began to invite guests to join her and the practice spread amongst her aristocratic friends and it soon became a fashionable social occasion.

Bed chamber

close up of the bed covered with embroidered designs

secret doorway

Chandelier

Stained glass window

The Socchi Desk

The Socchi desk is one of five desks and the only one in the UK. It is a mechanical table that can close into a circle shape. It was made by Italian cabinet market Giovanni Socchi in 1830.

Lady Beauclerk, formerly Viscountess Bolingbroke (née Spencer) 1734-1808 was the daughter of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough, she married Viscount Bolingbroke and had two sons and a daughter.

She got divorced and remarried and was a talented artist.

Portrait of Diana