Lacock village

Its been a very interesting day.  We visited the medieval village of Lacock which dates from Saxon times.  The earliest permanent settlers lived by the Bide Brook, which runs through the middle of the village. They called it lacuc or 'little stream'.  The village looks much like it did 200 years ago with its oldest house older than the 13th Century Abbey.  Since the loss of income from the woollen trade in the 19th century there has been little new development here.  The Abbey and most of the village is now owned by the National Trust with people renting the houses from them.

We then visited the Abbey also an interesting building which was founded in 1232 by Eli Countess of Salisbury.  She was the first and only female sheriff of Wiltshire and built the Abbey as a tribute to her husband becoming its first Abbess.  


The village has been used for various TV shows ad films including 'Downton Abbey', 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Cranford', and the 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' and 'Wolfman' films.

This shot shows one of the main streets with the medieval tithe barn dating from the 12th century on the righthand side of the photo.

After this we headed back to. our daughters stopping for a late lunch in Malmesbury a town also with an Abbey and interesting history.  By now the weather changed and it started to rain so we headed back to pick up our grandson.

An interesting day and good to spend time with our grandson and family.