We made our way to Lacock Abbey, founded in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a nunnery of the Augustinian order. In the mid-16th century, Henry VIII dissolved monasteries, nunneries and friaries all over England, Wales and Ireland as part of his new Church's separation from Rome. His purse was suddenly much fuller. Our guide Gordon said that Lacock was the last abbey to be dissolved. Henry sold it to a Sir William Sharrington who demolished the abbey church in order to build a comfortable house, but left most of the rest of the abbey untouched. Those original sections make the abbey a perfect film location for such movies as the
Harry Potter series,
The Other Boleyn Girl and the aforementioned masterpiece
Pride and Prejudice.
The first room we visited was the former Sacristy, which served as...
...Professor Snape's Potions classroom in
Sorcerer's Stone.
That's the doorway Snape first storms through, robes billowing all sexy-like behind him.
Gordon had us pose in the corner where...
...Snape delivers his potions speech, all sexy-like. "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses..." How can you resist Rickman's Snape? (Especially after you've seen Rickman in
Sense and Sensibility. Snape will never be a greasy git in my eyes.)
The Chapter Room was used in the first two films; in
Sorcerer's Stone as the room where...
....Harry first finds the Mirror of Erised.
In
Chamber of Secrets after Harry's gift of Parseltongue has been revealed, suspicious looks thrown Harry's way during study time make Harry slam his book shut and leave the room, walking by this window.
And there he goes, poor boy.
After Harry serves detention with Gilderoy Lockhart (helping to answer Lockhart's fanmail) in
Chamber of Secrets, he leaves the classroom via this door.
Do you remember what happens at that point?
He hears a voice that seems to be coming from inside the wall saying, "Blood....I smell blood..."
And the voice continues with "Let me rip you...let me kill you..."
At this corner, Harry tells Hermione and Ron about the strange voice.
This same set of hallways along the abbey's cloister serves as Cambridge in
Pride and Prejudice. University student Fitzwilliam Darcy walks purposefully along these hallways until he arrives at a door, behind which he finds naughty Mr. Wickham in an embrace with a scantily clad young lady. Other parts of the abbey we didn't visit were used for interior shots of Pemberley, Mr. Darcy's estate.
The Warming Room served as the classroom of....
....Quirrell, the stuttering professor with the malodorous turban. You can just make out the large cauldron next to him.
This was the only room where the nuns had a fire. This cauldron is over 500 years old. A platform was built around it for Quirrell to stand on.
Lacock Abbey acknowledges is connection with the first two Harry Potter films by displaying this poster. The only problem is, none of those scenes featured on the poster were filmed at the Abbey. Our guide was quite proud to point this out, and doing so served to deepen our appreciation of his Harry Potter expertise.
Harry, Ron and Hermione ran down this corridor to escape Mrs. Norris in one or possibly both of the first two movies.
Back outside trying to figure out how a sundial works
Leaving the abbey
One last photo at the abbey. Gordon asked if we recognized this location and said that taking a photo here was a must for diehard Potter fans. We were ashamed to admit that we couldn't identify it. Can you?
This is the place baby Harry and his parents posed for that photo that Hagrid places in a scrapbook for Harry. You see the scrapbook at the end of
Sorcerer's Stone and at the beginning of
Chamber of Secrets.
It was time for lunch!
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