History of Lacock Abbey

1232

The story begins...

Lacock Abbey was officially founded on 16 April 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, one of the most powerful women of the Middle Ages. 

She had previously served as Sheriff of Wiltshire and her 1225 copy of Magna Carta was kept at Lacock until 1946 when it moved to the British Museum. She was Lacock's first abbess and served for 17 years before dying in 1261.

1539

The Dissolution of the Monasteries

Between 1536 and 1541, monasteries, abbeys and convents were closed as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, ordered by King Henry VIII after his break with the Roman Catholic Church in 1533.

Lacock survived until the final wave of closures, eventually shutting down in 1539 after 300 years as a religious institution.

1540

Lacock becomes a Tudor country house

The abbey was bought by William Sharington for £730 in 1540. He transformed the abbey buildings from a convent to a country house, demolished the church and lady chapel, and built the curious octagonal tower on the corner of the abbey.

Thankfully, he chose not to demolish the stone cloister, which dates from the 1400s.

1574

Queen Elizabeth I visits

In September 1574, Queen Elizabeth I visited Lacock and stayed in the abbey. In thanks, she knighted the then resident Sir Henry Sharington (brother of William Sharington).

Sir Henry left Lacock Abbey to his daughter Olive and her husband John Talbot of Salwarp, who was himself a descendant of Ela, the abbey’s founder.

1714

A Georgian redesign

In 1714, Lacock was inherited by Georgian gentleman, John Ivory Talbot. He lived at Lacock for 58 years and dramatically altered the architecture of the building to fit with the fashionable Gothick style.

He added the classically proportioned dining room, the dramatic Great Hall, the Gothick arch in the grounds, and even removed the windows from the eastern rooms of the cloister to create a fashionable ruin.

1827

William Henry Fox Talbot inherits Lacock

William Henry Fox Talbot inherited Lacock from his father in 1800 when he was just five months old. The estate was in debt and was let out until Fox Talbot moved in with his mother and stepfather in 1827.

A pioneering scientist and keen mathematician, Fox Talbot is Lacock's most famous resident. He lived in the Abbey until his death in 1877 and is buried in the village churchyard.

1835

The first photograph negative is taken

'How charming it would be if it were possible to cause these natural images to imprint themselves durably, and remain fixed on paper,' wrote a frustrated William Henry Fox Talbot, after struggling to capture his surroundings in pencil and paint on his 1833 honeymoon to Italy.

This frustration led him to experiment with the new process of photography and in August 1835 he made history by capturing the world's first surviving photographic negative in the South Gallery at Lacock Abbey.

Before his breakthrough it was not thought possible to produce multiple 'positive' copies of a negative image, nor was it possible to fix a photograph permanently to paper until he perfected the technique in 1834.

1944

Lacock is given to the National Trust

Matilda Talbot inherited Lacock in 1916. She was conscious of her duties towards all who lived and worked on the estate and during times of hardship sold some of the Abbey's contents to improve the homes of her tenants in Lacock village.

In 1944, Matilda Talbot gave Lacock to the National Trust.