Lacock Village, Wiltshire Pt.7

It was to visit Lacock that first had me thinking of spending time in Wiltshire. The picturesque village with its many lime-washed, half-timbered stone houses, dates from the
13th century and has been seen in many TV and film productions, including the BBC series The Cranford Chronicles, Pride & Predjudice, Emma and some of the Harry Potter films, The Mayor of Casterbridge and The Other Boleyn Girl.

The Abbey is at the heart of the village and was founded in
1232 and converted into a country house in 1540.Willian Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of modern photography lived here and his descendants gave the Abbey and the village to The National Trust in 1944.

For this post I am going to take you around the village and will show you the Abbey and more on Fox Talbot seperately.

Remember, this is not a film set but a place where people live and work. We enter the village having left the car in the car park. One can only take a car into the village if you are a resident, work here or are staying in one of the village hotels.

The village school

The village store

The Bakery where we had morning coffee

and the Tea Garden at the back

The George Inn where we had a very delicious lunch. This is the inn used in the Cranford series.

The BBC had only recently finished shooting a special Christmas edition of Cranford. I shall be looking forward to that as I do like the series very much and like the acting of Dame Judy Dench. Click on photo for more information.

King John's Hunting Lodge, now a restaurant and tearoom and the oldest house in the village

The village garden centre

St. Cyriac's church where we passed some time during a torrential rainstorm. The daughter of The Duchess of Cornwall, wife of Prince Charles, was recently married in this church so we spent some of the time looking through a photograph album of the wedding and guests, including the Princes William and Harry.

A ford across the river. This was the only way across these rivers in ancient times for horse and carriage

Connecting with the Community

A little diversion from the Wiltshire photos

Evangelising in the park and connecting with the community.
'Soul in the City' time again. S in the C is basically a summer camp for young people from 14 upwards.The campers are based at the school belonging to our church and the whole event is run by youth leaders from the local churches. Our church is very involved in the day to day care of these young people, particularly ensuring they enjoy good and wholesome home made food.

The young people have Bible study and worship and prayer time in the mornings and the afternoons and evenings are spent serving the local people in many different ways, including praying for people around the shopping centre etc.

Evenings and weekends are family fun days with free entertainment and food in the park. Here is a little glimpse of some of the activities this afternoon.



There was a contingent of 25 youngsters from Egypt attending this year plus a number from the USA. Here we see a group from Egypt teaching youngsters to make friendship bracelets.

There is a prayer tent. It is surprising how quickly people respond when they realise that you care enough for them to chat with them and pray for them.

Face painting

Ball games and bouncy castles

Making grafitti designs for one's own T-shirt

Girl's Zone for hair braiding, nails, make-up and chilling out with artistic grafitti 'Love Christ'

Not forgetting a free BBQ

In previous years I have helped plant a large herb garden outside the Domestic Science block in a local school and pruned and cleared the gardens around our local library. My practical contribution this year was to make lots of cakes for the campers. Fruit Loaf, Butterscotch Chip Cookies, Gingerbread with raisins and dates and Ginger Cream Iced Oaties. (I did not take photos as I was too taken up with getting them all finished and delivered)

Marlborough,Wiltshire Pt.6

We have left Avebury and arrived in Marlborough just a few miles away. We walk past this pretty river, over the bridge, and into the town. Marlborough was a stage coach stopping place between Bath and London

Marlborough High Street is said to be the widest in England. It contains a number of specialist and designer shops,pubs and restaurants. Many are set under the 17th century arcades, known as penthouses.

Polly's Tearooms where we ate lunch

1610 is obviously the date the High Street originated as seen on the front of this building

This is a small part of Marlborough College, one of our top Public (private to USA visitors) schools and the seat of learning of my dear missionary friend, Norman Grubb.

To the left we see the Merchant's House which offers a rare insight into the life of a middle-class businessman and shopkeeper in the 17th century

Lots of different alleyways off the main street

Now on our way back to our cottage passing the burial mound described in the last post.

Golden grasses dancing along one of the many footpaths in this area

The Wadworth Inn, too pretty to pass