 Lacock
Lacock has several unique architectural styles covering its 750 years. Early plans of the exterior show an 18th century water garden hiddem underground. A programme of restoration is underway to reshape the botanic garden originally created by William Fox Talbot. Willian Henry Fox Talbot invented the negative positive process. An excellent museum of his work exists alongside the Abbey showing many of his experiments. Lacock is a charming village and is visited by people from all over the world giving it quite a cosmopolitan feel with the quirkiness of a time gone by! It is a well preserved vilage with many interesting cottages and fine houses. It is also a good location for visiting Bath and several other villages such as Castle Combe and Bradford on Avon.
Lacock History
The picturesque village, with its lime-washed, half-timbered stone houses, dates from the 13th century. At the heart of the village is the Abbey which was founded in 1232. The Abbey was founded by Ela, Countess of Salisbury who was married to William Longespee. Through the middle ages it benefited from the lucrative woollen trade because of the farmland that surrounded it. There was a community of nuns living in the Abbey at this time. Eventually the Abbey was converted into a fine country house and began to resemble the many rooms as we know them today.The atmospheric monastic rooms include medieval cloisters, a sacristy and chapter house and have survived largely intact. The wonderful 16th-century stable courtyard has a clockhouse, brewery and bakehouse. 
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