Lydney Park is a 17th-century

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner. British context In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...

surrounding Lydney House, located at

Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been bypassed by the A48 road since 199 ...

in the

Forest of Dean district Forest of Dean is a local government district in Gloucestershire, England, named after the Forest of Dean. Its council is based in Coleford. Other towns and villages in the district include Blakeney, Cinderford, Drybrook, English Bicknor, H ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England. It is known for its

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

s and

Roman temple Ancient Roman temples were among the most important buildings in Roman culture, and some of the richest buildings in Roman architecture, though only a few survive in any sort of complete state. Today they remain "the most obvious symbol of ...

complex.

House and gardens

Lydney Park was bought in 1719 by Benjamin Bathurst, son of the Cofferer of the Household to Queen Anne, and has remained in the family since then. The original house was close to the main road, with a large deer park behind it which was previously part of the estate of White Cross Manor. In 1875, Rev.

William Hiley Bathurst William H. Bathurst (28 August 1796 – 25 November 1877) was an Anglican clergyman and hymnist. William Hiley Bathurst was the son of the Rt. Hon. Charles Bragge. He was born at Cleve Dale, Mangotsfield, near Bristol on 28 August 1796. His mo ...

built a new house in the centre of the deer park, with views over the

River Severn , name_etymology = , image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG , image_size = 288 , image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle , map = RiverSevernMap.jpg , map_size = 288 , map_c ...

. The new house was built by C. H. Howell, with a formal garden and shrubberies. The old house was demolished, apart from the buildings now occupied by the Taurus Crafts centre. Rev. Bathurst's grandson Charles, later Viscount Bledisloe, made some further changes to the garden before the house became used in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, first to house the

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

and then a girls' school. The current garden was developed after 1950 by the second Viscount Bledisloe and his family. Betty Fairfax Horsfall was also a involved in the re-design of many areas. There is a woodland garden running along a secluded valley, planted with magnolias, rhododendrons, azaleas and other flowering shrubs. There is a paved terrace above and formal gardens which are popular in the Spring, when the daffodils bloom. The gardens are private land, and are open to the public on certain days depending on time of year. The house also has a museum containing findings from the Roman site and artefacts from New Zealand collected by the first Viscount Bledisloe.

Archaeological remains

The area has an early British Iron Age promontory fort–type

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

, known as Lydney Camp, covering 4.5 acres. The

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

dug there for iron ore, probably in the 3rd century AD, but apparently abandoned the workings as unproductive. Open-cast

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

mines, or ''

scowles Scowles are landscape features that range from amorphous shallow pits to irregular labyrinthine hollows up to several metres deep and are possibly unique to the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England. They have traditionally been interpr ...

'', and tunnels still exist throughout the hill. Lydney Roman temple, the tripartite cella

In the late 4th century, the Romans built a Romano-Celtic temple to

Nodens *''Nodens'' or *''Nodons'' ( reconstructed from the dative ''Nodenti'' or ''Nodonti'') is a Celtic healing god worshipped in Ancient Britain. Although no physical depiction of him has survived, votive plaques found in a shrine at Lydney Park ...

, a Celtic divinity who is reflected by the later figures of Nuada and Nudd/ Lludd in Irish and Welsh mythology respectively. Lludd's name survives in the

placename Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

of Lydney. Several model dog images have been found there, indicating it was a healing shrine; dogs were associated with such shrines and may have been kept to lick wounds. The structure was a somewhat unusual design, rectangular rather than the usual square Romano-Celtic style temple. The end of the sanctuary or

cella A cella (from Latin for small chamber) or naos (from the Greek ναός, "temple") is the inner chamber of an ancient Greek or Roman temple in classical antiquity. Its enclosure within walls has given rise to extended meanings, of a hermit's or ...

was not completely open, as usual; it had three rooms separated by stone walls. The walls of the cella were arched colonnades until a fault in the rock below caused the almost total collapse of the temple. It was rebuilt with solid walls. There was a fish-covered

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

with an inscription that referred to 'Victorinus the Interpreter', probably an interpreter of

dream A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

s. The temple was accompanied by a large courtyard guest house, a long building used as dormitory accommodation and an elaborate bath suite or ''

thermae In ancient Rome, (from Greek , "hot") and (from Greek ) were facilities for bathing. usually refers to the large imperial bath complexes, while were smaller-scale facilities, public or private, that existed in great numbers throughout ...

''. Tessa Wheeler excavated the site between 1928–9 with her husband

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...

and more excavations took place in 1980–1. The finds included a hoard of imitation Roman coins which were thought to date from the 5th century, but are now believed to be 4th century artefacts. The excavation report includes an appendix, " The Name 'Nodens'", written by Oxford philologist

J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

References

* Wheeler, R.E.M. & T.V. (1932) ''Report on the excavation of the prehistoric, Roman and post-Roman site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire''. Oxford.

Footnotes

External links

Lydney Park Estate
- Home Page
BBC - Gloucestershire films - JRR Tolkien and Lydney Park's links with Lord of the Rings
{{authority control Gardens in Gloucestershire Hill forts in Gloucestershire Country houses in Gloucestershire History of Gloucestershire Roman religious sites in England J. R. R. Tolkien Tourist attractions in Gloucestershire Roman sites in Gloucestershire Museums in Gloucestershire Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom Archaeological museums in England Lydney Country estates in England