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 house was originally close to the main road, with a large deer park behind it.
In 1875, Rev. William Hiley Bathurst built a new house in the centre of the deer park, with views over the River Severn. 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, first to house the Dutch royal family and then a girls' school.
The current garden was developed after 1950 by the second Viscount Bledisloe and his family. 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.
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