221 



®n tlje feistittg Stntdure of §^acocli ^lh%. 



By C. H. Talbot, Esq. 



Ecad before the Society at Chippenham, September, 1869. 



l^nE Augustine Nunnery of Lacock was founded in the year 

 1232, by Ela the widow of William Longespe, in her own 

 right Countess of Salisbury. She afterwards became the first 

 Abbess, and was buried there. 



It was surrendered to Henry VIII., in 1539. 



It was sold about lc44, to Sir William Sherrington, of a Norfolk 

 family, who converted it into a Manor House. It seems that his 

 estates were forfeited in 1548, and re-purchased in the fourth year 

 of Edward VI.^ The precise date of his alterations is therefore 

 uncertain. 



Sir William left no issue, and the Abbey was inherited by his 

 brother Sir Henry, in the hands of whose descendants it has since 

 remained. 



It was garrisoned, during the civil wars, in the reign of 

 Charles I. 



Having therefore passed through a certain number of vicissitudes, 

 it is remarkable that it should retain so many of its original 

 features. 



The buildings of monasteries in the Middle Ages occupy, in 

 general, the same positions relatively to the conventual church, 

 whether they lie to the north or the south of that structure. The 

 existing remains of Lacock Abbey are those of the domestic 

 buildings of the Nunnery, situated to the north of the church. 



These consist of the following : — 



1. Early Euglish buildings, vaulted with stone, which surround 



the cloister court on the east, north, and west, and form a 



substructure to the present house. They were probably 



erected about the same time, shortly after the foundation. 



1 " Aubrey & Jackson," p. 91. 



