Bedwyn is an unusual name which may have been derived from bedwine or bedwind which described the wild clematis found in the locality. An alternative suggestion is from the Celtic word bedewindan which is noted in a Saxon charter of 778 AD referring to a tributary of the river Kennet. Great Bedwyn was the main settlement in the Royal Forest of Savernake and had its own mint... but after the middle ages became less important to the growing influence of nearby Marlborough.

Today there are a number of places in the UK with odd-sounding pronunciations ("Barlick" for Barnoldswick in Yorkshire always amuses me)... but there were tongue-twisters in olden times too. The known changes to Bedwyn were Bedewinde, in bedewindan (778), aet Bedewindan (c880), Bedeuuinde (c1016), Bedvinde, bedvine (1086), Bedewinde (1091), Estbedewinda (1177), Bedewyna (1199), Chepingbedewynde (1276), Estbedewynde (1310), Westbedwynd (1441), Bedewen (1484), Bedwyn Abbotes (1502) and with the prefix Grete-, (1547) as well as Lyttelbedwyn (1547).

Whilst the work of the Lloyd family has been seen and used for celebration and remembrance far and wide, from the King Alfred statues in Wantage and Winchester to the Queen Victoria monument in front of Buckingham Palace, and even as marble lined halls of a Cunard liner which sailed the Seven Seas, it is in their thriving workshop that visitors come to see their more everyday work... and what has been put on show during the past century. To list more than a few would be an impossible task for a collection containing some two thousand pieces ranging from a Grecian cinerariunim - a stone urn for depositing the ashes of the dead - to old gravestones with humorous and cryptic inscriptions, to plaster work from the Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace, and a marble aircraft with a 3.4 metre wingspan, visitors can see the old alongside new pieces being made with some of the original tools dating from when the business began in 1790.

Many exhibits are fixed to the side of the main house including a slab with the traditional names for the different sizes of roofing slates carved on it. Another huge stone passing as a price list (but with perhaps some secret meaning to the emphasised words?) has the costs of repairs to a monument - providing a handful of witticisms for onlookers...

Repairs to a Monument
Corrected the Ten Commandments - 110s 0d
Embellished Pontius Pilate and put New Ribbon in his Bonnet - 20s 0d
Put New Tail on Rooster of St. Peter and Mended his Comb - 25s 0d
Replumed and Reguilded the Way of the Guardian Angel - 155s 0d
Washed the Servant of the High Priest and put Carmine on his Cheeks - 10s 0d
Renewed Heaven, Adjusted the Stars, and Thoroughly Cleaned the Moon - 65s 0d
Re-animated the Flames of Purgatory and Restored Souls - 27s 6d
Revived Flames of Hell, Put New Tail on the Devil, Mended his Left Hoof,
and Did Several Odd Jobs for the Dammed - 96s 6d
Put New Spotted Dashes on Son of Tebbias and Dressing on his Back - 106s 0d
Cleaned the Ears of Balaams Ass, and Shod him - 14s 0d
Put Earings in the Ears of Sarah - 26s 0d
Put New Stone in David’s Sling, Enlarged the Head of Goliath
and Extended his Legs - 45s 0d
Decorated Noah’s Ark - 60s 0d
Mended the Shirt of the Prodigal Son, and Cleaned his Nose - 15s 6d
Total - £38 15s 6d.

And there are other hidden stonemasons signs to be discovered. All this is free to see, and whether you appreciate the skill of the masons carving the serif lettering of a timeless epithet on a tombstone, or listen to the many tales from one of the Lloyd family, you will come away with a new experience of one of the most long-lasting crafts of man... but it isn’t all nostalgia.

Lloyd of Bedwyn was established in 1790 - John Lloyd being the seventh generation at the helm of this family business with a classic working knowledge of stone. The company uses marble, granite and other softer working stones from all over the world for varied building projects which, in recent years, have included Spanish Nero Marquina marble for the Queen’s Galleries, Buckingham Palace... Welsh slate for the British Museum, London... English Portland stone for the Henry Ford College... Italian Travertine and Brazilian Colibri granite seen in Times Square, London... Gneiss in the New Glaxo Smith Kline building... local Bath stone for the John Lewis Partnership (Waitrose stores)... York stone and slate used in the Portmeirion village, North Wales... as well as Italian Carrara marble.

You will find Lloyd’s workshop and Museum on Church Street, in Great Bedwyn, which is a few miles south-west of Marlborough, on the Wiltshire Downs.