Lacock - A Day out with Bethany

 Hi,
Yesterday we took our granddaughter out for the day,   like all grand parents we spoiled her.  The weather was fine we had a couple of raindrops while we were out but it came to nothing, over in a flash.
We took her to Lacock which is in Wiltshire and is a National Trust property and has been since 1944.
There is a lot to see in Lacock, there is 800 years of history of the Abbey which started off as a nunnery.   As you walk around the cloisters where Harry Potter was filmed well some of it.  there is a CD player playing music of nuns singing which is what it would have sounded like when it was a Nunnery.
 This is a picture of the courtyard with the medieval cloisters running around it,   there is no glass in those windows and never has been the nuns would sit in the cloisters doing their daily tasks or reading etc all the year around.  There was only three fires lit in the nunnery, so most of the time the nuns lived without heat unless they were cooking in the kitchen.

 Tower of the abbey 

 This was in the Chapter house,  they had a fire lit in there,  the picture below was of the original floor which the nuns no doubt walked on.

 Now to Harry Potter,   this was in the room they used to film some of the scenes,  those who have watched the films Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets will recognize the pot.

This was outside the Abbey in the gardens,   our grand daughter hitching a ride on it,  where she is standing there is a wheel which they push and the whole thing turns,  unfortunately the camera does not catch the glitter ball on the top as it goes around the sun catches it and throws lights around

Lacock Village, it one of the most filmed villages in the country how many films and programmes have been filmed there   well heres just a few  1958 The Moonraker,  1967 Pride and Prejudice,   1983 Treasure hunt (Wiltshire TV episode),  Robin hood,  1996 Emma,  1996 Moll Flanders,  1997 Henry VIII TV series,  2003 The Mayor of Casterbridge,  2007 Cranford TV Series,  2008 Tess of the D'Urbervilles TV series,  plus of course did I mention Harry Potter.

 There is so much history but I will quote this to you from one of the books on Lacock, " The village grew up around Lacock Abbey   which was founded in 1229 by Ela Countess of Salisbury,   Ela was the daughter of William Earl of Salisbury who was married to William Longespee,  the illegitimate son of Henry II.  William was one of the most powerful barons of the time.  He was a witness of the Magna Carta and with Ela laid the fourth and fifth foundation stones of Salisbury Cathedral    It was Ela who founded two religious houses in his memory,  involving a journey of 16 miles.  One at Hinton Charterhouse for Carthusian monks and the other at Lacock for Augustinian Canonesses.
The Abbey prospered throughout the middle ages,  with the rich farmlands this was at the time wool the main raw material for clothing and considered to be white gold and ensured a sizeable income for the Abbey.
The nuns were mostly ladies of good family usually between 15 to 25 in number,  as the community increased by a number of lay sisters who looked after the more menial tasks.  the village grew up together with the nuns supporting each other"  
There are no obvious signs of the 21st century   no double yellow lines on the roads, no traffic signs, television aerials or satellite dishes.  The only thing that intrudes on this idyllic unspoilt village is the motor car."
This piece has been taken from the book Lacock TV and Film Location guide.
The village has been owned and administered by the National Trust since 1944.

 This is our Granddaughter Bethany.

 Vernon enjoying the day,  this is a rare picture of him smiling  I told him off recently for not smiling when I point the camera at him.

See we did feed her,  here she is waiting for her lunch in the pub, plus an ice cream in the afternoon and of course a presents.   A great day out,  hope to do it again with her.









Here she is again with the statue of William Henry Fox Talbot 1800-77,
he owned and was resident of Lacock Abbey  he invented photography. In August 1835 Talbot made the earliest known surviving photographic negative using a wooden camera.  There is an exhibition in the Fox Talbot Museum in the grounds of the Abbey.  We all enjoyed looking at the old cameras and how they invented photography.

Well that was our day out.  I hope you enjoyed reading about it and if you get a chance to go do its a very interesting place to visit.  To think we have passed it for years and never visited it,  its amazing what's on your doorstep if you look,  we just never thought about going, so glad we have now.  I think we will be going again.
Until we meet again  Take care
                        Hugs
                    Margaret