UK Trip Day 29 - Malmsbury Abbey Gardens and Lacock Abbey

Day 29 - Malmesbury Abbey Gardens and Lacock Abbey

We had been quite intrigued after reading a book on The Naked Gardeners who created beautiful gardens at Abbey House beside the ancient abbey at Malmesbury. Ian and Barbara Pollard bought the house with its five acres of overgrown bushland back in 1994 and created a remarkable garden on the land that slopes down to the River Avon. We must take a look.

Malmesbury isn't far from Cirencester, so getting there was quite easy. So was finding the Abbey. It towers impressively over the town, and we walked up the steep steps from the lower car park to take a look around. Inside the Abbey was full of a lot of small children, perhaps a kindergarten outing or a crèche. We didn't stay.

The Abbey at Malmesbury

Back view of the old abbey

Market square at Malmesbury

A gorgeous old abbey

Statues of this monk pop up everywhere

Creche inside the abbey

 We then circumnavigated the Abbey to try and find the Abbey Gardens. There appeared to be no signage for it anywhere. We finally walked into town and found the information centre. The young lady inside gave us a map and verbal instructions. It seems we'd walked right past the entrance, but the gates were closed because it doesn't open until 11am (but no sign saying " 'ere be The Gardens, come back at 11" or something similar, just a blank gate that could lead anywhere). No matter .... it's already getting on for 11 now, so we go back and locate the gates. There is a tiny sign beside the gates after all with a few pamphlets, just not very obvious. We were the first ones in as soon as the gates opened.

The gates to the Abbey Gardens

Abbey Gardens house

Our first impression of the gardens was that they did not seem to be in a great state of repair. Everything was just a little bit tired, although still beautiful in its own way. There were quite a few lovely sculptures, water features, herbaceous borders and laburnum covered arches. We wandered around the various sections of the gardens, with Barb taking copious photos as she is wont to do. We didn't encounter any other visitors until quite some time later. Neither did we see any gardeners .... naked or otherwise (phew).

Abbey Gardens

Where is John?

Herb gardens and laburnum covered arches

A lovely place to sit

Random statues

The abbey makes a nice backdrop to the gardens

The green man

After taking a good look around we ordered tea and toasties from the tearoom .... we were still the only customers. John Googled information on the place. It seems Barbara split up with Ian some years ago citing his womanising ways. Ian continued solo at the house and garden until suffering a stroke some months ago, aged 70. We think the impetus has gone out of the whole operation. You can feel the lack of love and it's a great shame, because you can also see the great potential. It was once touted as the greatest garden in England .... not now I think. On our way out, we saw a long-haired bearded old man wearing sunglasses and well wrapped in blankets despite the warm weather, parked in a shaded corner of the garden in a wheelchair. A uniformed nurse was standing guard nearby. We're pretty sure it was Ian Pollard himself. So so sad.

Barb enjoys the gardens

The house is also covered by garden

Naked statues not gardeners

The Avon River

It was still early afternoon as we drove on to the 13th century Lacock Abbey, which we'd read about in our National Trust research. The Abbey was originally built by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, and was used as a nunnery until the 16th century when it was purchased and converted to a residence by Sir William Sharington (yet another case Henry VIII nationalising the monasteries and then selling off the proceeds). The Talbot family bought it in the 19th century and William Henry Fox Talbot whose family owned the Abbey lived there. His claim to fame is as the inventor of photography in 1835. One of the windows in his home was the subject of the first photo negative ever taken.

The house attached to the abbey at Lacock

Tudor style stable block



A kind fellow tourist took our photo

The old abbey and cloisters are wonderful. They are left in their natural state of disrepair and have been the movie set location of several movies and TV series, such as Harry Potter, The Other Boleyn Girl and 1995 BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

Cloister gardens of the old abbey

Nuns lived here

Loving the cloister gardens

Inventor of photography

First camera

This window was the subject of the first photo negative

The house is built into one section of the old abbey, and extended beyond and had been modernised by the family for 18th and19th century living. The last living member of the Talbot family, a niece of the owner, Matilda who was unmarried and had no children to inherit, left the property to the National Trust in 1944. It was very interesting to walk around the house and read about its history. The village of Lacock attached to the Abbey manor house is very picturesque as well. It has some gorgeous old Tudor buildings, as well as a mixture of heritage buildings and is worth taking a stroll around too.

Fox Talbot drawing room

The library

Grand entrance to the house

Cute village of Lacock

By now we were feeling pretty tired after a lot of walking. We drove back by a different route, going through Castle Combe and Doughton (just near Tetbury), which is where Prince Charles has his personal property Highgrove House and Duchy Home Farm. We didn't see him or Camilla to call in for tea. Perhaps they're not back from London after the weekend's annual Trooping of the Colour celebrations or are busy getting ready for the upcoming Ascot Races. Perhaps they just didn't know we were in the neighbourhood. Too bad for them.