Lacock (part two)

The final instalment of our trip.

Saturday morning we went to visit Lacock Abbey. 

As well as access to the grounds and abbey cloisters and the Fox Talbot museum you can also upgrade your entrance ticket to gain access to the abbey rooms. On this occasion we chose not to do that and in the end we didn't make it to looking around the museum either because by then we were flagging from the heat.

Just to the left as you look at this is a huge gated entrance to the front of the abbey. In my mind I could see guests arriving with the staff lined up by these steps, too many episodes of Downton Abbey!

Who doesn't like doors painted in National Trust shades?

It was beautifully cool inside the abbey. This is part of the sacristy. Precious items were washed here on the left and then taken through (the now bricked up) entrance to the church for use in services.

This staircase tucked away in one corner of the cloister was for use by the abbess 

from where through this window called a 'squint; she would be able to spy of the nuns and make sure they weren't doing anything they shouldn't!

Lacock abbey has been used for film locations such as The Other Boleyn Girl and two Harry Potter movies. I haven't seen them myself by apparently this cauldron appears in one of them.

The cauldron and this bath(!) are housed in the warming room.

The botanical gardens were my favourite part of the grounds.
There was an information board in the greenhouse which said that the family enjoyed a the fruit and vegetables produced by the gardeners all year round, even when they went on holiday to Scotland wicker hampers of produce were sent up to them.

This is one of my favourite photos ever, so cottage garden.

When I saw the steps cut into this tree trunk I wished that T and S were with us as I knew they would have liked to have walked up them. I could just imagine the chants of 'I'm the King of the Castle'.

G took the opportunity for a quick knock of croquet, I sat in the shade and watched.

An unusual tree in the orchard

which grew bubble filled glass paperweights and turned the world upside down within them.

This umbrella could be spun round and whilst the glitter ball reflected tiny droplets of light against the wall of the building opposite

the canopy was set with little prisms which cast miniature rainbows on the ground.