As we near the end of our Then and Now feature at Lacock we take our last look at Lacock Abbey.

This fine building was a religious house for Augustinian nuns and remained as such until the dissolution in 1539.

It was then purchased from King Henry VIII by Sir William Sharington who converted it into a family home.

He preserved the medieval cloisters and added the three-storey tower which we featured last week.

He also built a stable courtyard complete with brewery and bake house. In 1714 the property was inherited by John Ivory Talbot who transformed the abbess’s lodging into a Palladian dining room and a great hall reached by a double flight of steps. In 1828 his great-grandson, William Henry Fox Talbot, altered the long narrow gallery over the south walk of the cloisters by widening the central portion and throwing out three oriel windows.

The abbey grounds derive much of their character from Fox Talbot’s plantings of native and exotic trees with naturalised spring bulbs and wild flowers.

Talbot’s main interests were scientific, inventing the negative/positive photographic process and also photographic engraving.

His son, Charles Henry Talbot, did much to preserve and repair the monastic buildings. He bequeathed the property in 1916 to his niece Matilda and in 1944 Miss Talbot presented Lacock Abbey and village, with Manor Farm, to the National Trust who are now responsible for its upkeep.