![\"The](\"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image10.jpg\")
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On this visit the Littlest of the Tribe (helped by an incredibly enthusiastic big brother) gets one of the excellent National Trust trails to follow and lead us around the Abbey. \u00a0We begin in the Tudor Stable Courtyard that was built after Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries with stones from the demolished Abbey church (the very last one to be destroyed).<\/p>\n Here we find the 16th Century brew house, one of the oldest in the country and the remains of a Tudor bakery. \u00a0 \u00a0From here we walk past what I would call the front of the Abbey with its grand double staircase that leads in the Great Hall. \u00a0But the entrance we take brings us into the oldest part of the property – the cloisters and all the history that it holds.<\/p>\n As the Boy and the Littlest count the different mason’s marks on the ancient stones, I am drawn further along into the end room – the Chaplain’s Room.<\/p>\n Once the heart of the building, now empty other than the remains of three very faint wall paintings of St Andrew on the cross, Jesus Christ and St Christopher carrying the Christ child. \u00a0The latter is one of the earliest paintings, dating back to 1275. \u00a0With this knowledge it makes the room quietly atmospheric.<\/p>\n Another room brings us to why we ended up here – Harry Potter. \u00a0In the Warming Room with its impressive huge black cauldron originally made in Antwerp. \u00a0This is Professor Quirrell’s Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. \u00a0The Sacrisity is Professor Snape’s Potions Class and in the Chapter House Harry finds the Mirror of Erised. \u00a0The Tribe love it and their imagination runs wild.<\/p>\n Moving upstairs we arrive in a totally different world but one that is of huge importance to our lives today. \u00a0It is where the inventor William Henry Fox Talbot lived in the 1800s with his family and where the first negative was processed in 1835. \u00a0Its size was about the size of a postage stamp, but it is probably the most important artifact in photographic history. \u00a0The house is homely despite its size and you can imagine a family living there.<\/p>\n The Tribe find the story of where the negative originated \u00a0fascinating – the Eldest takes a lovely photograph replicating the picture on the first negative.<\/p>\n The final room is the Great Hall, built in 1754-5 for John Talbot, following a new style called Gothick and inspired by medieval buildings. \u00a0Standing in it, it is easy to imagine the parties that were held here.<\/p>\n Terracotta sculptures adorn the wall including one with a sugar lump on a goat’s nose – in 1919 an American student played a practical joke by putting a sugar lump on the sculpture and Matilda Talbot found it so entertaining that she left it there and it has been regularly replaced ever since. \u00a0Another sculpture shows a knight – William Longespee, son of Ela, Countess of Salisbury and a famous Crusader. \u00a0It is said that he died before his mother who, in her grief, buried his heart within the Abbey.<\/p>\n The ceiling of the hall is made up ot coat of arms – John Talbot’s friends and neighbours. \u00a0I imagine that you’d be pretty hacked off if you weren’t represented but thought that you were a friend! \u00a0His own shield is in the centre. \u00a0Gerald Durrell’s favourite is the one that belonged to the Flower family – it has a unicorn with 3 red roses above.<\/p>\n Having finished our visit to the Abbey, we walk into the village to find King John’s Hunting Lodge for afternoon tea. \u00a0We had previously visited for lunch with my parents and knew that it was reasonably priced but also full of history. \u00a0In fact I have since discovered that in 2009 and 2010, English Heritage \u00a0undertook ‘dendrochronological’ analysis on several samples from the Lodge. \u00a0Dendrochronology is the scientific method of dating based on analysing patterns of tree rings – I never knew that. \u00a0English Heritage’s Research Department have subsequently produced a 37 page report on their analysis.<\/p>\n The Lodge is the oldest house in the village (now scientifically proven!) and has the expected interior with tapestries and china on display. \u00a0On this day, the crumpets, pikelets, scones piled high with cream and jam, hot chocolate and steaming cups of tea, is exactly what we need. \u00a0As we sit down, the heavens open and release a barrage of hailstones. \u00a0Perhaps there are still wizards at work in Lacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Tribe were discussing which was the best of all JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books the other day and it reminded me of Lacock Abbey where some of the filming had been done for The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets. \u00a0The Eldest had a birthday celebration there prior to us leaving for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[235,76],"tags":[238,87,241,237,242,236,240,239],"class_list":["post-1382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lacock","category-uk-days-out","tag-ela-countess-of-salisbury","tag-featured","tag-first-photographic-negative","tag-harry-potter","tag-king-johns-hunting-lodge","tag-lacock-abbey","tag-william-henry-fox-talbot","tag-william-longespee","wpcat-235-id","wpcat-76-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/image15.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4llmx-mi","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1397,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1382\/revisions\/1397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lifewiththetribe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>