Class 5 Mr Brierley

Our visit to Lydiard Park.
First we looked at the outside of the house, it was very grand. There were 3 windows above the door. They were fake. Inside the room the ceiling was very high. On the top of the house there was a motto and a coat of arms for the family. We then had a tour around the house. We started in the hallway, servants had to go in the back door of the grand house, but we were lucky to go in the front way. There were some weapons, guns and swords and a beautiful chandelier. We went into the library. A man was renovating the fireplace. Then we went into the next room, where there was an exhibit showing a lady doing the ironing. Then Kate did a demonstration of how the servants did the washing. The servants didn?t use a washing machine as there was no electricity. The maid put the clothes in a tub, even the underwear, and pumped the water in from a pump in the garden. She would wash it with a dolly and scrub it with a scrubbing board. She used soap to wash the clothes ? it smelt pongy!

We tried on lots of different hats. The house was very clean and sparkly. We went to see the Butler in the dining room. He was serving the puddings. Lady Bolingbroke was all dressed up for dinner. There were jellies, cakes and ice -cream. The ice -cream was made in the icehouse as there was no freezer in those days. We went into the drawing room where the ladies went after dinner. The men stayed in the dining room and smoked cigars and drank port. The room had lots of portraits of their family in it. These were a good idea as you could be painted with neat hair and could look more handsome.

Finally we went into the bedroom. There was a bed with curtains around it called a 4 poster bed. There was a secret door for the servants. There was a potty, a warming pan for the bed, a wooden tub for washing. We then passed round Victorian objects such as a jelly mould, scissors, bellows, iron, a pie funnel and button hooks. Thomas and Lauren dressed up as Lord and Lady Bolingbroke. Beverly and Joe dressed up as the maid and the butler.

We started our visit by looking at the house. We noticed the front of the house was symmetrical and very grand, this was where the owners lived. The back was very scruffy as the servants lived there. There were some steps that went nowhere - they were used for getting on horses. We then went into the church, we went inside
the house, everywhere we went we looked for triangles! We went into the library, this room was covered over with cloth and a man was
painting the fireplace. The next room had a display showing a lady ironing. Megan and Scott pretended to do some washing. First Megan
washed the clothes with a dolly and
Scott scrubbed them with a
wash-board.

At first we went in through the graveyard and entered the church.We saw lots of stained glass windows.We sat in the pews and looked around.We felt warm but the seats were hard. There were prayer cushions too. We looked at all the statues, one was golden holding a spear. There was
one very old statue that was dusty and one with all his 13 children around him! There was a big bible on a stand near the front of the church. On the wall at the front there was a big
family tree. The Bolingbroke family would sit in a special seat at the side, important people would sit at the front and servants at the back.The roof was painted to look like a nights sky
with moon and stars on in. At the back of the back church there was a extremely big organ with bellows to make it work. There was writing on the floor, there are graves with people
buried under the floor. There was a gate separating the people from the priest and the altar.

We went into the church and we saw a golden tomb. There was a man in armour on it. We sat in the pews of the church, the important people sat at the front and the servants at the back. Everyone had to go to church, sometimes two or three times on Sunday. The pews have their own doors.
There was an organ with huge pipes, and a large keyboard. There was a gate separating the front and back of the church. There was a grand family tree on one wall which opens up into a picture.
There was a stand with an eagle's head to hold the bible. There was a tomb with thirteen children on it.
The church has a beautiful stained glass window. The church has a bell tower. There are memorial plaques on the wall and floor. The family had their own private family pew and also their own door to come through. The ceiling is painted with sky and stars.

We went around Lydiard park asking people questions to find out what they thought about the park. Our reason for asking questions was to find out how people enjoyed themselves.We already had written out our questions at school and put them in order.
As we were walking around L.P with our parent helper we stopped to ask people if they had time to answer our questions. We sorted out the information back at school and analysed it to see it if people thought the same.
This is what we found out:
We found most people liked the house and woods.
People didn't like the dirty lakes and mud.
Everybody came to the park by car.
Most people wanted better toilets, more dog bins and more seats.

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