Saturday we drove to Lacock Abbey and enjoyed having a look around at the abbey and the little village. The abbey is medieval, founded in the early 13th century by Ela (the daughter of the Earl of Salisbury) who was married to one of the illegitimate sons of Henry II. One of the Earl's claims to fame was that he was a witness to the Magna Carta. To protect it during the war (can't remember which one) the Magna Carta was hidden under the floor of the abbey (can't remember when they retrieved it either). During the reign of Henry XIII the nuns who lived and ran the abbey (the woman were from good, wealthy families - those from poor backgrounds had no need to join an abbey because there was always plenty of work to do on the farms and in the house) were told to leave and it was gifted by the king to a guy called Sharington who made it into a country house. The Abbey was used as a school for city children relocated from the city during the second world war and then later still as a location for films such as Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice and The Other Boleyn Girl (so more movies to watch). We had a great time making Caramello a little broom stick (with a Christmas theme) and took photos of him practicing his game of Quiddich in the cloisters and out in the garden. Some people did not see the humour in this activity but we enjoyed ourselves immensely.
A few generations later the abbey was passed down to William Henry Fox Talbot - we found out that he was not only a botanist and scientist but best known as the inventor of the first photography (technical way of saying this was in the mid 1830's he discovered the 'negative/positive photographic process'). The museum had a number of his first photos and excerpts from a diary which he kept from a child as well as school reports and letters to his Mum. I wondered what he would have thought of digital photography as he at one stage said something like 'that his developments were only the beginning of something special - rather than the end'. One of William's descendants in 1944 gave the abbey to the National Trust - and because most of the village was also owned by them - all but a few buildings are now owned by the National Trust (which I found fascinating - I did think that given old King Henry had taken the Abbey from the nuns perhaps it had finally been given back to its rightful owners - the community). The museum also had an exhibition from the Lewis Carroll's story 'Alice in Wonderland'. I had forgotten how 'imaginative' the story was and didn't realise that Alice was based on a little girl living at the time. The exhibition was a scan of a number of the 19th century pictures and then using Adobe Photoshop recreated on landscapes with as many as 60 images layered on top of each other. The grounds of the abbey were quite mystical, on the cloudy wintry day and surrounded by flood waters. (Lots of very heavy rain down south and people again flooded from their homes before they had been repaired from the earlier floods).
We wandered through the village, into the pub to have a coffee, the bakery to buy carrot cake, boutique shops to have a look and marvelled at the thought that this had all been gifted to the country. The village had a lovely ford (flooded from the recent downpours). None of the houses had front gardens - they all opened straight on to the street which was probably a sign of the times.
On the way home we went to Bath to have a look at the Christmas markets (but they had finished the week before). We settled into the Sally Lunn restaurant for a early bird dinner and enjoyed vegetable soup and main courses (one of the nicest meals we have had since coming to the UK). The house is the oldest building apparently in Bath - and it is where the recipe to the Sally Lunn was found hidden in a wall panel many years before. Sally was, according to one story, the daughter of a pastry cook in Bath who used to make the bready bun. There are a variety of recipes for the bun and who knows which one was discovered in the hidden cupboard.
Sunday was a glorious day, so after preparing dinner (friends are coming tonight - we have been invited to their place for Christmas dinner - and we are taking lamingtons - they have never heard of them. So, again I googled and discovered that these little gems are the invention of Australians and were first used as a way of using stale bread - so there will be a touch of kiwi and Aussie at an English home during Christmas Day) we decided to drive out to the Wiltshire White Horse at Westbury. There are a lot of these horses, scattered throughout the Wiltshire district and others. But the Westbury horse is the oldest and situated high on a hill overlooking the valley and the Westbury concrete factory. Many years before the horse there was a Iron Age hillfort called Bratton Camp. There has been a white horse on the site for at least three hundred years or so and just as many stories about why they were decorate the hillside. This particular one, was restored in the late 1800's and had just undergone another repair job (the shape is now made of concrete slabs rather than the original limestone of the area which is a bit disappointing but understandable as it reduces the maintenance costs). Given that the horse is now concrete there is a certain irony that it looks over a local cement factory in what would have been once a panoramic view. It was icy up there on the hills and even with all our winter gear on we didn't stay long but retreated to the car for a cup of tea and to watch the paragliders and model planes from a warm seat.
We wandered through the village, into the pub to have a coffee, the bakery to buy carrot cake, boutique shops to have a look and marvelled at the thought that this had all been gifted to the country. The village had a lovely ford (flooded from the recent downpours). None of the houses had front gardens - they all opened straight on to the street which was probably a sign of the times. 
On the way home we went to Bath to have a look at the Christmas markets (but they had finished the week before). We settled into the Sally Lunn restaurant for a early bird dinner and enjoyed vegetable soup and main courses (one of the nicest meals we have had since coming to the UK). The house is the oldest building apparently in Bath - and it is where the recipe to the Sally Lunn was found hidden in a wall panel many years before. Sally was, according to one story, the daughter of a pastry cook in Bath who used to make the bready bun. There are a variety of recipes for the bun and who knows which one was discovered in the hidden cupboard. Sunday was a glorious day, so after preparing dinner (friends are coming tonight - we have been invited to their place for Christmas dinner - and we are taking lamingtons - they have never heard of them. So, again I googled and discovered that these little gems are the invention of Australians and were first used as a way of using stale bread - so there will be a touch of kiwi and Aussie at an English home during Christmas Day) we decided to drive out to the Wiltshire White Horse at Westbury. There are a lot of these horses, scattered throughout the Wiltshire district and others. But the Westbury horse is the oldest and situated high on a hill overlooking the valley and the Westbury concrete factory. Many years before the horse there was a Iron Age hillfort called Bratton Camp. There has been a white horse on the site for at least three hundred years or so and just as many stories about why they were decorate the hillside. This particular one, was restored in the late 1800's and had just undergone another repair job (the shape is now made of concrete slabs rather than the original limestone of the area which is a bit disappointing but understandable as it reduces the maintenance costs). Given that the horse is now concrete there is a certain irony that it looks over a local cement factory in what would have been once a panoramic view. It was icy up there on the hills and even with all our winter gear on we didn't stay long but retreated to the car for a cup of tea and to watch the paragliders and model planes from a warm seat.By the way, if there is anyone out there who reads our blog regularly and you feel like adding a Christmas comment I would love to hear from you.
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