MIKE Bowden, 55, chairs the Friends Of Lydiard Park, the charity spearheading a campaign against council moves to lease out the attraction. The Friends organised last week’s public meeting about the issue, which was attended by about 750 people. Mike lives in Wroughton. He is married to Sarah, a former keeper of Lydiard House and Park, and has two grown-up children.

“I HAVE many failings,” said Mike Bowden, “but lack of commitment and passion isn’t one of them.”

He is not one to show strong emotions in public, but that changed last week at Lydiard Park Academy, when he was completely overwhelmed by the turn-out.

“I was out doing the car parking duty 10 minutes after the meeting was due to start. It reminded me of a football match crowd. There were queues – cars were queued down toward the M4," Mike said.

"All I could see was headlights and people gagging to come to that meeting.

“There aren’t many issues in Swindon’s history where that sort of crowd has been evident.

"If you get 100 people to a meeting, you’ve done well. If you get 200 you’ve done very well.

If you get 300 you’re off the spectrum.

“The reason that I was having trouble controlling my emotions at the start was that, when I came in from sorting the cars out I literally could not get through the people that were standing at the back to get to the front table.

“I’ve been a qualified lawyer for 30-odd years now, and I have never broken down emotionally in front of a crowd, ever. I’m a good negotiator. I’m an abrasive personality and never in my life has that happened. But when the lip goes, it goes.”

The Friends’ campaign began last year. Its aim is to save the house and park from being leased to the private sector, and to have it run instead as a charitable trust or social enterprise company.

Representatives of heritage groups, along with Better Swindon and Labour and Conservative councillors, have been asked to help set up a strategy group.

The Friends fear that a leasing deal would give a private company too much freedom to do things not in the public interest.

As evidence, Mike cites issues such as the council’s helplessness to halt the removal of the Link Centre’s climbing wall. He said: “One reason this process has started is that Swindon Borough Council see everything in terms of pound notes.

"They value everything in terms of a credit or debit balance in their bank account.

“The result of that mindset is that because they say they subsidise it to the tune of £458,000 a year, they consider Lydiard to be a liability.

"And therefore their solution is to go to the private sector which, in their political philosophy, sorts out everything that’s a problem.”

Although critical of the council, the charity has no political allegiances.

“We are absolutely non-party-political. My personal belief is that local authority politics is never about party politics," said Mike.

"It’s about local issues that matter to local people. I would prefer them all to be tagged as independent, because if any of them start talking to me about party foreign policy or national economics I either fall asleep or want to throttle them.

“I believe in good quality people. I don’t really care what party banner they come under.

“I’ll give you two examples. On the Labour side the guy who in my opinion epitomises an absolutely high-calibre and decent, principled man of the community is Jim Robbins.

"On the Conservative side, slightly more junior but a man who has worked tirelessly behind the scenes in support of various campaigns of the Friends Of Lydiard Park is Tim Swinyard.

“Although they might argue privately about politics, from where I sit they both represent the very best of local politicians.”

Mike is from Epping. His father was a carpenter and his mother a wages clerk.

He studied law at the University of Nottingham.

After qualifying as a solicitor he worked for several energy companies. He came to Swindon more than 20 years ago.

Outside work he volunteered with various community groups and served as a director of Swindon Town FC during the Willie Carson era – although speedway is his sporting passion.

He became a trustee of the Friends Of Lydiard Park in 2007, taking over as chairman following the death in 2013 of Denys Hodson, the visionary local arts administrator.

Mike is proud of Swindon and the heritage of which the house and park are a part.

“If you go to Lydiard on a half decent day at any time of the year it’s rammed with families having picnics, children being pushed in prams and pushchairs, kids flinging frisbees, grandparents with their grandchildren, young mums and dads proudly pushing their new babies around, youngsters playing on the playground, oldies having a cup of coffee in the café," he said.

“It is a cross section of the community of a town that I’m very proud of, whether it’s barbecue, frisbee, coffee, walled garden, gardening expertise or looking around the museum at the fine art and artefacts, or going in the church and looking at some exquisite stone workings.

“We believe, as the Friends Of Lydiard Park, and with 10,000 petition supporters and 750 people at the public meeting and – I’ve no doubt – thousands more residents of Swindon, that it is an abomination to suggest that Lydiard Park and House is a liability.

“We wouldn’t just say it was an asset. We would say it is an asset of huge importance not just in heritage terms.

“There has always been something about Lydiard that is part of the heart and soul of the town.

The best evidence I can offer you for that is 750 people at a meeting on a chilly night.

“It is one of our greatest assets, and if the council only got that, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”