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In search of Harry.
Close to our home in Wiltshire lies Lacock Abbey. Founded in the reign of Henry 111. the Abbey prospered during the middle ages, its wealth largely created by income from the wool trade.
The Abbey was converted to a house in 1539 when the abbey church was demolished. Few other alterations were made to the monastic buildings themselves.
The cloisters still stand below the living accomodation.
Some interior sequences in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets were filmed at the cloisters, the Abbey was also used to film some scenes in the film The Other Boleyn Girl.
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The house eventually passed to the Talbot family. It is most often associated with photographic pioneer William Henry Fox Talbot. In 1835 Talbot made the earliest known surviving example of a photographic negative of the oriel window in the south gallery of the Abbey. He continued with his experiments at the Abbey and in 1840, discovered the negative/positive photographic process, upon which modern, (pre digital), photography is based. It is interesting to speculate as to what William Henry would make of the equiptment we use today.
The Abbey and village of Lacock are owned by The National Trust.
Copyright Paul Strawson - Blog ref: 22
