Since Lacock was just a town away, we decided to see the famous Lacock Abbey. Allan hadn’t been here in 20 years. (Where had I heard that before?)
William Henry Fox Talbot announced his invention of the first photographic negative in 1839. This discovery was the birth of modern film photography. Seeing the window of the abbey used in the first photograph was like seeing the birthplace of Allan’s profession.
Lacock Abbey was one of the oldest known remaining medieval nunneries in Europe. Ela of Salisbury was the founder and first abbess of the abbey before it was bought by William Sharington and passed on through the family to William Henry Fox Talbot. If it looks familiar you might go back and look at the earlier Harry Potter films. They shot some of the scenes for 2 films on location at Lacock Abbey.
The Abby and village was finally donated by Talbot’s granddaughter in 1945 to The National Trust. We went through the old apartments where the family lived and entertained, painted and invented.
The village still keeps its old charm to this day. It was a wonderfully relaxed Sunday afternoon tour.