Lacock Abbey With Stable Yard

Lacock Abbey with Stable Yard

A country house of outstanding historical and architectural significance, created by mid-16th-century remodelling and extension of the cloister court of a 13th to 15th-century Augustinian nunnery founded in 1229. The abbey was sold to Sir William Sharington at the Dissolution in 1540. The house underwent further alterations around 1700 and 1740 for Sir John Talbot and John Ivory Talbot. The entrance front was rebuilt as a Gothic great hall in 1754-55 by Sanderson Miller for J.I. Talbot. The south front was remodelled in Tudor style in 1828-30 for W.H. Fox-Talbot, and the medieval parts underwent restoration circa 1900-10 under the direction of H. Brakspear for C.H. Talbot.

The building is constructed of ashlar and rubble stone with stone slate roofs, and is notable for numerous ornate 16th-century twisted chimney stacks. It is mostly two storeys, with the major part of the house on the first floor only, standing over unaltered medieval basements.

The medieval basement comprises three sides of a lierne-vaulted 15th-century cloister with two 14th-century bays at the south-west angle. Largely 14th-century spaces open off this. To the east is a fine series of vaulted rooms including the sacristy, chapter house, and warming house, largely intact except for openings on the east side dating from circa 1900. This section was originally beneath the Dormitory. The west side, beneath the great hall but originally beneath the Abbess' lodging, contains two rooms and the main entrance passage. The north side is an undercroft to the refectory. In the upper part of the house, medieval roofs survive (though concealed): the north side refectory roof is 15th-century with arch-braced collar trusses and three tiers of windbracing; the south side dormitory roof is 14th-century with three tiers of cusped windbracing.

The west front features a 1754-55 ashlar-faced hall to centre, full height, with a slate half-hipped valley roof. Octagonal angle turrets with ogee cupolas, a delicate pierced parapet, and two large ogee-headed windows flank the central door, which is reached by a two-arm balustraded outside stair. This is an important landmark of the 18th-century Gothic revival. To the left, the former medieval kitchen was refronted in the 18th century with a balustraded parapet, buttresses, and two two-light pointed windows similar to those on the Bath House at Corsham Court by Capability Brown. To the right is a plain parapetted range with two 15-pane 18th-century sashes and a heavy stepped corner buttress.

The south front is similarly severe, essentially the inside north wall of the Abbey church with balustrading and a south-east tower added by Sharington, plus three oriels of varied sizes added in 1828-30. The north-west angle of the church is marked by a heavily buttressed projection; west of this, in plain walling, is another 15-pane sash. Sharington's tower, possibly designed by John Chapman, is octagonal and three-storey, divided by string courses, with a top belvedere, balustrade, and stair turret. It features finely detailed two-light mullion windows.

The east front presents the most medieval outline, though the 13th-century style Gothic ground floor windows date from 1900-10. An adjoining tower, a two-storey range parallel to the main range, has its ground floor forming the medieval east end of the chapter house and sacristy. The parapetted upper floor features six stone cross windows added in the mid-16th century. To the right, the main range has a buttressed ground floor and, above, four 18th-century Gothic four-light windows (two on each side of a fine 16th-century outside stack) beneath a battlemented parapet. The south end cross-wing appears largely 16th-century with coped gables, heraldic finials, and dentil eaves cornice. The mullion-and-transom windows are of flush chamfered type with an unusual roundel motif at the intersections. Medieval stonework survives at ground floor level. A two-gabled 16th-century north extension has first-floor 18th-century sashes and attic mullion windows.

North of the house is a stable court, mid-16th-century on the east and north sides, forming an exceptionally complete Tudor service court. It is notable for large timbered gabled dormers, some with deep eaves on scroll brackets, and a higher cross-gabled clock-tower at the west end of the north range. The court features mullion windows, dripcourse, and Tudor-arched doorways, though four doorways in the Renaissance style reflect interior 16th-century work. 19th-century low coach-houses and two early to mid-18th-century lodges form a screen across the west side, linking to an apparently late 17th-century addition to the north of the former kitchen. This addition is two-storey with five windows, the upper windows being 18th-century sashes replacing earlier cross-windows, and the lower windows being chamfered recessed mullion windows. A fine timber dentil cornice runs across the elevation, and at the south end is a bolection-moulded doorcase. From here projects a mid-18th-century Gothic ogee-headed carriage arch with screen walls on each side.

The interiors contain outstanding mid-18th-century Gothic work. The great hall features exuberant terracotta figures by V.A. Sederbach in canopied niches and a shallow tunnel vault with armorial decoration. A south-west room, dating from circa 1740, is decorated in the style of William Kent. The South Gallery was remodelled in 1828-30. A panelled parlour beyond dates from circa 1700-20. The south-east tower contains a vaulted octagonal strong room with pendants to the vaults and a magnificent stone table attributed to J. Chapman; a similar but damaged table stands in the belvedere. A stone gallery in the east range is 16th-century with a Renaissance-style fireplace and doorcase. The Brown Gallery in the north range features fine 16th-century windows overlooking the courtyard, with visible corbels of the refectory roof. In the service court is a complete surviving brewery at the west end of the north range.

W.H. Fox-Talbot (1800-77), the pioneer of photography, spent his life at Lacock Abbey and conducted his first photographic experiments here.