This was primarily a drive day, leaving the remote confines and tiny roads of Dartmoor, heading along the more stressful roundabout roads to the Avebury region.  The construction around Chippenham made for particularly wheel-clutching driving.

Lacock Abbey was founded by an order of Augustinian nuns in the 13th century.  After the dissolution of monasteries in the 16th century, King Henry VIII sold the abbey (and pocked the cash, of course).  It was converted to a manor house, with most of the abbey (save the cloister) remodeled to more opulent tastes.  In the early 19th century, Lacock Abbey became home to Henry Fox Talbot, and in 1835 he made the first photograph camera negative.  Along with the Frenchman Louis Daguerre, Talbot became one of two inventors of photography.  The abbey, and the surrounding village, eventually passed to the National Trust, and is visited by thousands of visitors each year (most of whom seemed to be there the same day we were).  Several scenes from the first Harry Potter movie were filmed here.  I admit that I did not get many good shots (at this, of all places, the font of all photography), but that often happens when I visit crowded places.  Oh well, it’s the though that counts.  As with Buckland Abbey, the exhibits and interpretation were less about the monastic lives of the original occupants, and more about the people who converted the abbey into a home after the dissolution.  We would have prefered the former over the latter.

The village itself is quite charming, and it certainly has a historic vibe.  But it is also packed with tourists, and feels a bit commercialized.  I did enjoy the tithe barn, where the monastery kept the tithed (taxed) grains and other foods "donated" by local "parishoners."  It was good to be the king, and not bad to be the abbot.  The Angel Inn was nice, but not great.  The Red Lion pub, however, had excellent scones and a warm inviting atmosphere.  We struck up a great conversation with a couple and their two dogs.  The Lacock Bakery looked the part of delicious local bakery, but the food was just not that good.

LODGING

Avebury Henge has long been on my bucket list, and it did not disappoint!  The Avebury region has been active and important for thousands of years.  The henge itself (a high circular mound, which surrounds a deep circular ditch, when then surrounds a tall stone circle, which in turn surrounds two smaller stone circles) dates from approximately 2850 BC.  It is too massive to capture all in one picture (except from the air), and is so large that a small village was eventually built inside of it.  West Kennet Long Barrow (a long burial tomb) is approximately 1,000 years older.  The Kennet Avenue (two parallel stone rows) is from approximately 3,000 BC.  Silbury Hill is the tallest ancient human made structure in Europe, and is massive to behold.  We started this day with a flash of good weather, followed immediately by hours of deluge.  It rained all the way through our one-hour guided tour of Avebury, but we (and one other couple we met on the tour from Sussex) trudged on with the guide, eagerly learning as much as he could teach us.  After getting dry in the National Trust café (pasty and cream tea), we headed back out again, and the CLOUDS PARTED!  In their place, beautiful glowing light and a few rainbows.  I only half-heartedly apologize for the number of photos.  The light was just so spectacular, and the subject so utterly fascinating, that I could not put my camera down.  It was a day simultaneously adventurous and beautiful!