Lacock Abbey Part One

You may be wondering why I am writing a blog about an Abbey and posting it on my Exploration Blog well that is because it is only an Abbey in name. It was founded in 1229 by Lady Ela and dedicated to St Mary and St Bernard. Because of the large amount of land left by Lady Ela it prospered in the middle ages from the wool trade but suffered in the dissolution of Monasteries were it was sold by Henry VIII to Sir William Sharington who converted it into a house. The Abbey was garrisoned by the Royalists in the civil war. The house eventually ended up with the Talbot family which is why many people make pilgrimages here now as Henry Fox Talbot lived here and he became a Father of Photography as he made the earliest known surviving example of a photographic negative. The Abbey is now owned by the National Trust but you can see an Exhibition on Fox Talbot at an adjoining museum by the entrance  to the property.

Lacock Abbey as you see it from the road side

This is the entrance to the NT and also where you will find the museum

One of the first places you see is the Tudor Yard , the building on the right is part of it, below is a stitch of the yard itself

One of of the things you can see in the yard  is this 16th century Brew House

This wonderful arch is the entrance to the grounds 

and this the first view of the house

which from over the drive looks impressive

this is a view of the house and hexagon tower

We went into the cloisters through the side entrance and I was in awe of what I saw

The next few photos were taken using the HDR setting on my camera

the detail is amazing

along with the color which does not show that well

but you can see they are vivid

and still show up well for being done back in the middle ages

In the distance in the photo on the left you can see a fenced off are where Ela the founder is buried

You pass these old stone coffins on the way into the warming house

Which is this place 

it was used in the Harry Potter Films and was the warming house in the nunnery

Not sure what this one was

This is the area between the cloisters

and this is looking through one of the windows

My wife pointed it out to me this look suspiciously like a Glastonbury Thorn, makes me wonder if it is the place is the right age for some dealing to have gone on

I have always wanted to take a shot like this

What do you think, looks cool

In the room where the lady is standing in the last photo you can see this broken frame in a cabinet. It was on the wall till some numptys backpack knocked it off, it shows the family tree of the owners  Laycock abbey

And this is a hand written dictionary which I have forgotten how old it is but we are talking middle ages

the kitchen though I think it has been retro fitted












The dumb waiter made me smile but so did the old cabinet

as I has seen them before I think my mum has something similar

This is called the Chaplin's Room

Think you can guess what this room is from the bottles though I doubt it was it's original use.










I think that is enough for now as I have shown you most of the ground floor.
 If you have enjoyed this then you can read  part two  which will show the house itself and some of the exhibition. I will also feature Laycock Church in a separate Blog
More information on the National Trust Website