Lacock Abbey was founded in 1232 as a nunnery for Augustinian canonesses by Ela, Countess of Salisbury. After the dissolution, the Abbey was converted into a house by Sir William Sharington – look up at the house and you can see a banqueting house on the roof.

Sharington was succeeded by his brother Henry in 1553, whose daughter Olive married John Talbot of Salwarp, Worcestershire. By a strange coincidence, Talbot was a descendant of Ela, Countess of Salisbury. In 1574, Elizabeth I stayed at Lacock.

In the early 18th century, Stephen Switzer remodelled the grounds for John Talbot creating tree-lined walks, a ha-ha and turning the fish-ponds into a series of ornamental water features. A payment of £250 was paid to ‘Capability’ Brown in 1756 although it’s not known what work he carried out at Lacock.

In the early 19th century, the Abbey’s grounds were altered by the pioneer photographer, William Henry Fox Talbot. It was here that Fox-Talbot took his first photograph choosing the oriel window as his subject.

Talbot was also a keen botanist who brought home seeds and plants from his travels. He also planted many specimen trees although his mother was not impressed: ‘the lawn will acquire the appearance of that most ugly thing, an Arboretum, because if is a kind of refuge for the destitute’. Talbot also partly filled in some of the water features.

Lacock Abbey was given to the National Trust in 1944. They have carried out an extensive restoration programme.