It was a photo tour of Lacock abbey, by Clare at Suitcases and Sandcastles, that inspired me to add the abbey to the list of places I planned to visit during my trip to England last year.
Lacock abbey has a very fascinating history. Ela, the Countess of Salisbury, was a wealthy heiress who became the countess suo jure or in her own right, and not by marriage, in 1196. She did marry that same year, at the age of 9, and her husband became the Earl of Salisbury by marriage. A few years after her husband’s death, Ela founded Lacock Abbey in 1229 and laid its first stone in 1232. She joined the abbey as a nun in 1238 and became its first Abbess in 1242. To ensure that the village around the abbey thrived, she obtained a charter from the King which allowed a weekly market to be held in Lacock.
During the dissolution of the monasteries, Sir William Sharington bought the abbey and converted it into a house in the mid 16th century. Despite the demolition and construction work that took place, the cloisters remained as it was in Ela’s time. The Abbey soon passed into the Talbot family, when Sharington’s niece, to whom the property was willed, married John Talbot. In the mid 18th century, the house underwent alterations in the Gothic revival style.
The abbey was gifted to the National Trust in 1944 by Matilda Gilchrist-Clark, who inherited it from her uncle Henry Talbot, the son of William Henry Fox Talbot, who contributed to the history of photography by developing the photographic negative process. A museum on photography is housed at the barn at the abbey gates and you can see the copy of the world’s first negative taken by Talbot in 1835 here. The negative is of a window at Lacock Abbey.
My visit to the Abbey was in winter and so only the cloisters and the grounds was open to visitors, and not the house. However, as my primary fascination about the place was centered around its medieval history, it worked out well for me.
The entrance to the cloisters was adorned with Christmas decorations and the staff were at work decorating the passageways, as I explored it.
The Chapter House is a section of the cloisters, which has been well preserved. This room was where the nuns gathered every day and read a chapter from the Rule of St. Benedict for Benedictines and Cistercians.
If not for Septimus, the kid’s guide to the cloisters, urging one to watch out for the creatures that came alive at night, I might have missed out a closer look of the ceiling bosses. I spotted the swan but not the seahorse or the mermaid. It would have been fun had the adult’s guide also included ‘spot the object’ games.
The niche in the wall, which once held books, was also interesting. Since books were very expensive during the Middle ages, they were often locked or chained to the shelves.
The warming house was one of two places at the abbey, which had a fireplace. Visitors were therefore shown to this room, after being received in the parlour. The nuns’ dormitory was above this room so that the warmth from the room would reach them. The huge cauldron, dated 1500, was originally a cooking cauldron before becoming a garden ornament in the 18th century.
With the quiet surrounding the cloisters, it was very easy to imagine how it must have been like during the time that the nuns were in residence at the abbey.
Emerging from the cloisters, I decided to walk around the abbey grounds, circling the abbey. The grounds were well maintained and a beautiful place to walk around.
I passed a deep and still pool, as I walked along the grounds carpeted with the fallen leaves.
The Rockworks was a mid 18th century creation, built as a mock ruin for those walking the grounds to come upon.
Other highlights of the abbey grounds was the rose garden, the botanic gardens and the kitchen gardens. The kitchen gardens were used, since the time of the nuns, to produce food for the abbey residents. The botanic gardens were a special endeavour of Henry Fox Talbot, who was a keen botanist in addition to being a keen photographer.
Walking back to the entrance gate, I stepped into the Fox Talbot museum, which was opened in 1975 in the barn, used as stables in the 16th century. The ground floor gallery showcases the history of photography, while the first floor displays temporary photography exhibitions.
Henry Talbot became interested in photography when he became frustrated with his artistic efforts to capture the scenes he and his wife saw on their honeymoon travel across Europe in 1833. Returning to Lacock, he started thinking about how the image reflected onto ground glass from a camera lucida could be permanently captured, without having to trace its outlines. His chemistry experiments led him to develop light sensitive papers which could be used to leave contact prints of opaque objects, which he called sciagraphs. It was in 1835 that his experiments of using sensitive coated paper and a modified camera obscura led to the development of the world’s first negative. However, he did not publish his results and in 1839, Louis Daguerre announced his independent findings and came to be known as the father of photography.
While I had heard of a daguerrotype, which was the first commercially successful photographic process, I had not heard of the calotype, Talbot’s invention and modification of his earlier work in 1835, and which he had patented in 1841. So, it was with interest that I explored the Fox Talbot museum in Lacock.
The Lacock Abbey has certainly had a very interesting history from its medieval beginning as an abbey for nuns and then as a site for early photography experiments.
What features of Lacock Abbey is of most interest to you?
[Linking this post to Wanderful Wednesday and Faraway Files #18]
Perspectives Quilt 
What an interesting story! Poor Countess of Salisbury having to get married at only 9 years of age and then becoming a nun. Lacock Abbey looks really beautiful. Hope to visit it someday.
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I think Ela might have become a nun to prevent being forced to remarry, as she was a wealthy and powerful woman. Lacock Abbey is very fascinating.
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Lacock Abbey looks so incredibly beautiful and has such a rich history too! I would have been so sad if it had been destroyed, so I’m glad that Sir William Sharington decided to buy it and turn it into a house so that we can still see it today!
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The abbey is beautiful indeed, as is the village.
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I love castles and abbeys like this! Not only because the architecture is just so stunning but also because there’s so much history to learn! Never heard about Lacock before but now I’d love to visit!
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That’s the reaction I had, Van, when I saw Clare’s post on the Harry Potter trail at Lacock. I simply needed to visit the abbey and village and prioritized it, during my recent trip. Lacock must simply be visited! 🙂
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Ah I’m so fascinated by this! I’m a HP fan so wouldn’t mind checking this out, but I also find the history interesting! #WanderfulWednesday
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Lacock has a very fascinating history and I loved my stay in the village.
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so beautiful! As you know Cotswolds are on my list:)#wanderfulwednesday
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Yes, Tanja, I would highly recommend your visit and stay at Lacock. I loved the place!
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I love the winter light you have captured at the Abbey Ahila. We only saw the outside last year when we visited Lacock but I can see we missed out. Will have to go back and have a look for myself. Thanks for joining us on #FarawayFiles
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Thank you, Katy! I was lucky that it was a couple of beautiful winter days during my visit to Lacock. I will also need to revisit someday to explore the house, which had been closed during my visit.
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She must have been some heiress to become Countess in her own right, interesting that when she was single and of an age to choose she chose set up her own nunnery not to marry again. #FarawayFiles
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Ela had around 8 or 10 children by the time her husband died. Like Penelope being forced to accept remarriage when Ulysses had disappeared after the Trojan war, Ela was being pressured to remarry when her husband’s ship had been shipwrecked and he went missing. Her husband did turn up after months and was angry that she had been pressured that he went to court to express his displeasure. On his way back home, he died and some articles I read mention that he was poisoned by the person who had been pressurizing Ela to marry him. Perhaps Ela might have been subjected to further pressure by this man and she became a nun to escape that. Her title remained with her, even though she remained at the abbey as an abbess till her death.
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That’s such an interesting story about the founder of Lacock Abbey. Times were certainly different back then. After looking at your photos, I wish we had a chance to visit this place when we were in England last summer.
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Do visit it next time, Michele. It is just 30 mins away from Bath city.
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The fallen leaves around the building give it such a nice atmosphere. Lovely pictures Ahila! #FarawayFiles
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Thank you, Kat!
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Thank you so much for featuring my post, Ahila. I’m so happy to have inspired you to visit – and to see that you loved it as much as we did. Those cloisters are beautiful and you’ve taken such great photos of the stunning abbey. Thanks for sharing this on #FarawayFiles
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Thank you, Clare! I simply fell in love with the abbey and the tiny village. I did visit another city, during this trip to England, also inspired by another lovely post of yours and will write about it soon.
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So much history and beauty. I would love to go to the museum too – an inspiring person who I remember oh so well in my studies of photography way back when ;). #farawayfiles
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Delighted to hear that you had heard of Henry Fox Talbot and his contribution to photography, Corey! For me, it was the first time that I heard his name so it was a lovely discovery at the photography museum.
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Great to read about Ela, she sounds like a very strong and resourceful woman.
I agree with your point about adult guides often forgetting to add the fun things to spot – it doesn’t matter what age you are, hunting for things is always enjoyable.
#farawayfiles
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I found Ela fascinating as well for the very same reasons you mentioned. She made Lacock a thriving village and stood by her resolution not to remarry, despite the pressure.
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I love the creature hunt as well! And I would love to learn more about the beginning photography studies. What a beautiful site Ahila – thanks for sharing with #FarawayFiles, Erin
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The photography museum was quite nicely done and informative. Lacock is a lovely village to visit, Erin.
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