I would like to right a wrong. I refer to a National Trust house in Lacock, now called Chamberlain’s House. The tourists are told that it was once the abode of the Chamberlain of Lacock Abbey. This is a complete nonsense and I am further angered when I find it as a fact in at least two books of Wiltshire guides in our town library. If one consults the 1871 census for instance, there will be found the Chamberlain family living in that house. The head of that family was Joseph Chamberlain and he was a carter, an agricultural labourer. Quite a come-down from Chamberlain of the Abbey.

My grandmother was from the Pegler family of Lacock and the family lived there for several generations. Her brother, William Robert Pegler, married one of the daughters of the Chamberlain family, Sarah Jane and they lived in that house. When I was a lad in the 1930s I often visited that house with my grandmother and was spellbound by the ancient fireplace. I have written to the National Trust, of which I am a long-time member, but have had no reply to two letters over the years. Surely the National Trust know the facts about this farce and does Lacock really need this tourist gimmick. Please can we end this silly situation.

William HJ Fox, Frome Road, Trowbridge.