Lacock Tourist Attractions
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Lacock (10mi/16km northeast of Bradford-on-Avon, pop. 1,300), a pretty little showpiece village with a market, is today the responsibility of the National Trust.Lacock dates back to the 13th century with most of the houses from the 18th century or earlier. Visitors enjoy the untouched appearance of the village.
Lacock Abbey and Village
Lacock Abbey, founded as an Augustinian convent in 1229 and converted to a manor house in 1539, was the home of the Talbot family for hundreds of years. Note in particular the Hall, an early example of Gothic Revival (Neo-Gothic) designed by Sanderson Miller in 1755. There is an interesting museum dedicated to the pioneer of photography William Henry Fox-Talbot (1800-1877), inventor of the photographic negative.The village that surrounds the abbey dates back to the 13th C. There are many lime-washed, half-timbered stone houses as well as a wooded garden, clockhouse and bakehouse.
Fox Talbot Museum of Photography
The Fox Talbot Museum of Photography is contained in the former residence of William Fox Talbot (1800-77). The inventor of the modern photographic negative inhabited a medieval abbey that was converted into a house in the 16th century. The abbey and village were donated to the National Trust in 1944 and the museum was developed in the medieval barn of Lacock Abbey, where Fox Talbot carried out his early photographic experiments in the 1830s.
St Cyriac's Church
The parish church of St Cyriac's, begun in the 14th century but only completed in the 17th, is surrounded by numerous late medieval houses and inns.
