Freshford & District Local History Society
Wednesday 28th February, 2024
7.30pm
Freshford Village Memorial Hall
The newly-revised Pevsner volume on Wiltshire edited by Julian Orbach states that Lacock village is ‘one of the best in the country, compact and without any loss of scale anywhere, and with a wealth of medieval buildings, both apparent and disguised. The extraordinary degree of preservation is thanks to the Talbot family who owned nearly every house until they gave the estate to the National Trust in 1958’.
The village is said to date substantially from the early 14th century, though there is a documented settlement before then, probably soon after Lacock Abbey was founded in 1229 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as an Augustinian nunnery. At the same time she also founded Hinton Charterhouse Priory. Both were in memory of her husband William Longspee, whose tomb can be seen in Salisbury Cathedral. The village was started soon after the Abbey and is said to have been completed in 1247. You can see seven centuries of buildings in a 10-minute walk around in a variety of materials; what you won’t see is anything after about 1926, the date of the extension to the 18th century Red House in Church Street. Dorothy Treasure is Principal Buildings Historian at Wiltshire Buildings Record in Chippenham.
Members free Visitors £3.00 Everyone welcome