Lacock AbbeyWe met up with friends for this short stroll around Lacock, followed by a pub lunch and then a visit to Lacock Abbey - a great model for a day out! We found the route on the Visit Wiltshire website.
You turn right out of the only car park and follow the road out of the village. Almost immediately you are treated to the view of the Abbey shown above. A bit further on you cross a narrow bridge over the River Avon and then turn left across fields, "just before" this chapel.
There was some lively debate about how close to the chapel you had to get to be "just before" it. We thought it looked Victorian and it turns out to be a Wesleyan Methodist chapel dating from 1863.
After crossing the meadows you turn left through a field and into another meadow which leads down to a bend in the river. You now cross another meadow to reach a bridge over the river at Reybridge.
You cross a large meadow with a nice view back towards Bowden Hill (172m).
And then enter a lane which leads down to an 18th century pack horse bridge on the outskirts of Lacock.
You pass one of King John's innumerable hunting lodges, almost opposite the church, and find yourself in the picturesque Church St. Left into East St and left again at the end of the High St return you to the car park.
Distance: 2.5 miles
Conditions: cloudy, mild
Rating: three and a half stars
Flower of the day
This Teasel was strikingly silhouetted by the river.
Lacock Abbey
An interesting but not, taken as a whole, beautiful building. Originally monastic, it was taken into royal ownership by Henry VIII when he dissolved the monasteries and then promptly sold to Sir William Sharington. Sharington and his desendants made many alterations, but rather surprisingly left the beautiful cloister and many of the original monastic rooms on the ground floor untouched. Today it offers an extraordinary mix of religious and secular elements from a wide variety of periods. Latterly it was associated with the Fox Talbot family (the pioneer photographer).
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