Page 2 - link magazine

2 The Link Magazine • June 2006
Something for the whole family as UK Corporate Games come to Swindon
Friday 2 June to Sunday 4 June - a fab weekend of sport, music, circus and heritage
Three days of great family enter- Bands will perform music for all Also on Friday youngsters aged on Friday evening at a business
tainment are being organised to tastes - from swing and jazz to the four to 17 years have their chance battle of the bands Gig At The
celebrate a massive sporting event sounds of the 60s by The Over- to take part in a fun run at Lydiard. Games in Lydiard Park.
in Swindon. tures, and the glittery 70s from Competitions in 21 sports in- Lydiard's lawns will also host a
The UK Corporate Games 2006 Abba tribute band The Fabbagirls. cluding dragon boat racing, soc- tented corporate village where
will see thousands of people de- Circus acts and theatre groups cer, badminton and cricket will companies will show off their
scend on the town from 2 to 4 June will provide roaming entertain- feature at venues across Swindon. wares and entertain guests.
for a weekend of competition. And ment throughout the weekend and Npower, Intel and Nationwide A leaflet promoting the attrac-
to make it a great community par- six-piece band Weapons of Sound are among the local companies tak- tions, activities, venues and tim-
ticipation event Swindon Council will run a junk percussion work- ing part and Swindon Council is ings will be available at the end of
is organising a host of attractions shop as well as perform on stage. entering a team of almost 300, the May. The information is also avail-
at Lydiard Park which will be the Combining the themes of sport largest by a civic authority in the able at: www.swindon.gov.uk/
huh of the games. and entertainment a match of Geor- games' history. corporategames
To launch the festivities HRH gian cricket, complete with play- Company staff with musical To enter the fun run call the Life-
the Princess Royal will visit ers in period costume, will be held abilities rather than sporting prow- style Team on 511033 by midday
Lydiard Park on Friday 2 June. on Friday 2 June. ess will be displaying their talents on Thursday, 1 June.
Lost lake back in time for the games

As Swindon prepares to welcome Ready for the Royal visitor, for
the UK Corporate Games, Lydiard the first time in over 100 years
Park is pulling out all the stops to Lydiard's 'lost' lake will be filled
ensure that this major event will with water.
be a triumph for Swindon writes The reinstatement of the lake
Emma Valentine. restores the beautiful setting to the
handsome Palladian mansion that
was remodelled under John, 2nd
Viscount St John in the mid 18th
Century.
In commissioning the work on
the house and landscaping of the
grounds, John St John would have
Left, Keeper of Lydiard House Sarah
Finch-Crisp by the empty lake been looking to raise his profile eral thousand tonnes of silt re-
Right, the lake as it will look soon locally as the owner of a magnifi- moved for productive reuse on site.
cent Palladian building and coun- The new spillway and culvert will
try estate, as well as demonstrat- carry any flood flows through the
ing to the world that he was a man repaired dam embankment. The
of taste and learning. lake is filling up naturally from the
The remodelled house and stream flowing through the lake,
grounds would have represented combined with springs and rain-
a new beginning for the St John fall, with 23,000 cubic metres of
family under his ownership. water.
Work began on excavating the Seeing the summer sun reflect-
lake in October 2005. Since then, ing off this new feature of Swin-
over two acres of scrub and under- don's landscape will be well worth
growth have been cleared and sev- a visit over the games' weekend.

Glinting flags fly again atop Lydiard's turrets
The three 18th Century swallow-tailed pennants or flags are now
back on the turrets of Lydiard House.
They were removed by
local furniture restorer,
Phillip Noble, who had to
completely strip the flags
and re-gild them with two
layers of gold.
This painstaking work
took many hours but was
essential to preserve these
historic artefacts for future
generations. The removal
and replacement of the flags
coincided with work to re-
lead the roof of all three
turrets and now that they
are back in place, they add
to the beautiful external fea-
tures of this magnificent
Palladian mansion.
• Flower Festival at St
Mary's Lydiard Park. See
page 30