Visit to Lacock Abbey.

On the Sunday of John's birthday weekend we visited Lacock village and abbey. Lacock is a village in Wiltshire and it is almost entirely owned by the National Trust. On the day we visited the weather was warm and sunny and the car park was filling up very quickly with visitors eager to see the venue of many TV series and films. We walked past the entrance to the Abbey to have a look at the main village street, and I took one photo of the village street.

It's a shame there were parked cars. We need another visit to explore the village.

Lacock Abbey was founded on the manorial lands by Ela, Countess of Salisbury and established in 1232.  After the dissolution, the Abbey and estate, including the village was sold to William Sharington and later passed to the Talbot family by marriage. The Lacock estate was home to photography pioneer Henry Fox Talbot from 1800 to 1877. In 1916 Henry Fox Talbot's son Charles bequeathed the estate to his niece Matilda Gilchrist-Clark. She took the name of Talbot and in 1944 she gave the Abbey and the village to the National Trust.

This was the view of the Abbey as we walked from the car park into the village.

When we went to visit the Abbey we walked past the front and turned round the corner. The doorway on the left took us into the cloisters.

The cloisters had a decorated ceiling  and was open on one side to grass.

In one of the room off the cloisters there was an example of the old floor tiles The looked beautiful and I love the designs.

We looked into the warming house. The information board in the photo below explains the warming house and the cauldron. You would be able to cook a lot of soup or stew in the cauldron.!

In the kitchen I like the household wants indicator. I could do with one in my kitchen. We have a note pad for writing down jars, tins etc that have been used but no one writes on the list.

I also liked the old range. I remember visiting my maternal grandfather's house and spending time in the kitchen by the range. It looked fairly similar to this one. I can also remember granddad using black-lead to clean the range. I was very pleased when he didn't ask me to help, it seemed a very mucky job to do

There was also a collection of irons and a pressing machine. Thank goodness we have our lovey modern steam irons.

As always I was on the lookout for embroidery and other textiles. There were two embroidered screens.

and a needlepoint cushion.

We walked round the grounds

Looked in the courtyard

There were lots of spring bulbs.

I loved the old fashioned daffodils, they have much longer trumpets and were an amazing bright yellow.

We enjoyed our visit and after tea and cakes we drove home to London. We really enjoyed our weekend away.

Take care

Lyndsey