A walk around Lacock

The village of Lacock has been used in countless television dramas - including Downton Abbey.  Our local romance writers group meet there every couple of months for lunch. When I went there last week I took some photographs and spotted this interesting topiary!

 The bakery...

A very old house...

 The post office...

And this is The George, where we had lunch.

A day out with Colin Firth and Harry Potter...

Well nearly. :)

Once I'd written The End on the last book (For His Eyes Only - Kiss/Modern Tempted) the dh and I did what we'd been promising ourselves for ages and drove a few miles up to the road to Lacock Abbey and Lacock village.

Lacock Abbey is most famous for being the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer in the film of photography but it's a lot older than that. It was built on the foundations of a former nunnery and has amazing cloisters, and medieval rooms on the the lower floor - where three of the Harry Potter movies were filmed - and more recent, Tudor stuff upstairs.

After touring the Abbey, we walked around the medieval Ifstreets of Lacock village, which is like taking a tour through British costume drama heaven. The Red Lion pub was used as the exterior of the Assembly Rooms in the Colin Firth version of Pride & Prejudice and the Bennett girls were seen chatting in the High Street - it's where Lydia met Wickham!

Cranford is another series filmed here - the National Trust shop became the cobblers and furniture repair shop. It rained just after the crew covered the High Street with "snow" and it all turned to mush. Art copying reality!

The list of movie and television credits for the village is long, including The Other Boleyn Girl, The Wolfman, The Secret of My Success, Moll Flanders.

If you're planning on coming to the area (and it's close to Bath), try and take a few hours to visit. There are lots of great places to eat - our local Romantic Novelists' Association Chapter meets every couple of months at The Sign of the Angel.

The Cotswolds - Day 2

Rain!

Fortunately it didn’t last and by the time we’d had breakfast it was dry if not exactly sunny and we set off for world-famous garden at Hidcote Manor

It was a little like driving through a cloud – Hidcote is the highest point in the north Cotswolds – and when we pulled over in a rather dark wood to sort out the automatic lights on the new car I spotted a clump of cowslips looking totally out of place. 

You’re meadow plants, guys! 

Hidcote, a garden created by Lawrence Johnston in the 1930s in the Arts and Crafts style, was a total delight. Relaxed, soft planting… well, I’ll let the photographs do the talking. 

Things here, as everywhere, were late, so we missed most of the wisteria which, next week, will be stunning. But the tulips, bluebells and earliest Azaleas were gorgeous. Left with loads of ideas for my own small patch.

From Hidcote we went on to Broadway, the kind of pretty town that would have looked perfectly at home in Midsomer Murders. 

Good shops – I bought a jacket and the dh treated himself to a hat – and we had an excellent lunch at the Swan.