Botanic Garden at Lacock - back of Fox Talbot Museum

A visit to Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum and Village in Wiltshire.

Lacock Abbey in the village of Lacock, Wiltshire, England, was founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. The abbey remained a nunnery until the suppression of Roman Catholic institutions in England in the 16th century; it was then sold to Sir William Sharington who converted the convent into a residence where he and his family lived. It was fortified and remained loyal to the crown during the English Civil War, but surrendered to the Parliamentary forces once Devizes had fallen in 1645.

The house was built over the old cloisters and its main rooms are on the first floor. It is a stone house with stone slated roofs, twisted chimney stacks and mullioned windows. Throughout the life of the building, many architectural alterations, additions, and renovations have occurred so that the house is a mish-mash of different periods and styles. The Tudor stable courtyard to the north of the house has retained many of its original features including the brewhouse and bakehouse.

The house later passed into the hands of the Talbot family, and during the 19th century was the residence of William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1835 he made what may be the earliest surviving photographic camera negative, an image of one of the windows.

In 1944 artist Matilda Theresa Talbot gave the house and the surrounding village of Lacock to the National Trust. The abbey houses the Fox Talbot Museum, devoted to the pioneering work of William Talbot in the field of photography. The Trust markets the abbey and village together as "Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum & Village". The abbey is a Grade I listed building, having been so designated on 20 December 1960.

The Botanic Garden (Abbey Walled Garden).

Back of Fox Talbot Museum.

Grade II Listed Building

The Fox Talbot Museum and Abbey Lodge and Entrance Gates

Description

LACOCK HIGH STREET
ST 9168
(north side)
4/103 The Fox-Talbot Museum and
Abbey Lodge and entrance
gates (formerly listed as
20.12.60 Lodge and Barn at Abbey
entrance gates)
GV II

Barn, C16 with house inserted at east end in early C20 and remainder
converted to museum of photography 1975. Rubble stone with stone
slate roof and coped gables. South side, to road, has one blocked
Tudor-arched upper opening and two C19 doorways to museum. House
at right end has 2-storey, 2-window range of 2-light mullion
windows. North side has 2 lean-to cart entries. Two-light hollow-
moulded mullion window by right cart entry.
Interior of museum has fine 9½ bay roof of tie-beam trusses with
king-posts and collar pieces tenoned into king-posts each side, an
unusual truss form also found at Lacock Abbey (q.v.). Interior of
house not inspected. Attached low screen wall with ball-finials to
piers and C19 iron gates. Old photographs show considerable
alteration to road front which had buttresses, 2 elliptical-arched
cart-entries and applied Gothick tracery on west end wall. Said to
have been built as stable by Sir W. Sharington of Lacock Abbey in
mid C16.

Listing NGR: ST9175968400

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Taken in: UK / England / Lacock / Lacock (show map)

Taken on: June 26, 2022

Tags:

Lacock

Wiltshire

Lacock Abbey

England

Great Britain

United Kingdom

The Columns

Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum and Village

Sir William Sharington

Ela, Countess of Salisbury

nunnery of the Augustinian order

William Henry Fox Talbot

Talbot family

Botanic Garden

Abbey Walled Garden

Fox Talbot Museum

Welcome to Lacock

High St

High St, Lacock

Lacock Village

Grade II Listed Building

Grade II Listed

The Fox Talbot Museum and Abbey Lodge and Entrance Gates

Barn

converted to museum of photography

Rubble stone with stone slate roof and coped gables

Tudor-arched upper opening « less

Sets appears in: • Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock • Lacock

Groups appears in: • Barns, Sheds and other Rustic Rural Buildings • Botanical Gardens. more » • " AMAZING TREES " • Barns of the World. • Museum Exteriors « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ72, f/4.3, 1/125 sec, 12.3mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ72
Aperture:	f/4.3
Exposure Time:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Focal Length:	12.3mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Ver.1.0
Show full info

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