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.
History
Lacock Abbey was founded by Lady Ela the Countess of Salisbury in the reign of King Henry III. Her husband was William Longespee, an illegitimate son of King Henry II. Generally, Lacock Abbey prospered throughout the Middle Ages. The rich farmlands which it had received from Ela ensured it a sizeable income from wool.
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid-16th century, Henry VIII of England sold it to Sir William Sharrington, who converted it into a house starting in 1539, demolishing the abbey church. Few other alterations were made to the monastic buildings themselves: the cloisters, for example, still stand below the living accommodation. However, additions were made over the centuries, and the house now has a tower in the Renaissance style and various grand rooms.
The Abbey also underwent alterations in the 1750s under the ownership of John Ivory Talbot in the Gothick Revival style. The architect was Sanderson Miller.
The house eventually passed to the Talbot family. It is most often associated with William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1835 Talbot made the earliest known surviving example of a photographic negative, a small photogenic drawing of the oriel window in the south gallery of the Abbey. He continued with his experiments at the Abbey and in 1840, discovered the negative/positive photographic process, upon which modern photography is based.
The Abbey houses a museum devoted to Talbot's pioneering work in photography.
Lacock Abbey and the surrounding village were given to the National Trust in 1944. The Trust market the abbey and village together as "Lacock Abbey, Fox Talbot Museum & Village".
Trivia
- Some interior sequences in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were filmed at Lacock, including the cloister walk (illustrated, right) where Harry freed Dobby.
- Lacock appears in the "Cromm Cruac" and "The Pretender" episodes of Robin of Sherwood.