By Harold Brakspear, F.S.A. 



203 



Crok. Dat. anno gratise M°cc° quadragesimo primo die Sancti 

 Johannis ante portam Latinam." 1 



The earlier quarry referred to was probably also at Haslebury ; 

 as the Crooks were lords of that manor, so that the reason for the 

 exchange for another in the same place is not clear. 



These early quarries were tunnelled into the sides of the hills 

 with surface adits, but are all now worked out and have given place 

 to the stone mines of the present day, which are such a peculiar 

 feature of the neighbourhood. In Aubrey's time " Haselbury 

 Quarre is not to be forgott, it is the eminentest free-stone quarrey 

 in the West of England, Malmesbury and all round the country of 

 it." 2 



The Church. 



The church at Lacock occupied the south side of the cloister. 

 It was, unfortunately, one of those parts of the abbey deemed 

 superfluous and utterly destroyed by Sir William Sharington, with 

 the exception of the six westernmost bays of the north wall. These 

 were retained to form the south wall of the new manor-house, and 

 so have remained to the present day, though much mutilated by 

 modern insertions of about 1828. 3 



Until November, 1898, the extent of the church was merely 

 conjectural, but during that and the following month excavations 

 . were made on the site, with the help of donations from the 

 Society of Antiquaries and the Wilts Archaeological Society. The 



1 Ibid. Translated. Eobert Abbot of Stanley in "Wiltshire and the Convent 

 of the same place give to the said Convent one part of their quarry of Haslebury, 

 being in length seventy six feet and in width that which was theirs, that they 

 may take as much stone as they can from that place in exchange for the other 

 quarry that the Convent bought of Henry Crok. Given in the year of grace 

 1241 on the day of St. John ante portam Latinam. 



2 Jackson's Aubrey, p. 58. 



3 These consist of : — in the first bay from the west, a large oriel window ; 

 in the second, a buttress, a small oriel, and a doorway on the ground-level ; 

 the next two bays above the string-course have been destroyed to form a 

 projection containing a large oriel ; in the fifth bay is a large 16th century 

 window, altered into a sash window in the 18th century ; and in the sixth 

 bay a small two-light window. 



