Travel Features

Going back in time at the Lacock Village

Time has come to a standstill at the quaint village of Lacock. In the rural county of Wiltshire, England, cars look oddly out of place in this 18th century hamlet, so do people donning modern attire. In their place, you’d expect horse carts and carriages pulling up with dapper gentlemen in waistcoat and breeches.

A typical street in Lacock.
A typical street in Lacock. Don’t the cars look out of time here?

I came across Lacock on my one-day tour of Stonehenge from Bath. You could either choose the package of Stonehenge and Cotswolds or Stonehenge and Lacock. I didn’t book my tour earlier, choosing to hop onto a train to Bath from London and trying my luck with their one-day tours at the Tourist Office. The more popular Stonehenge- Cotswolds package was all snapped up, so I had to contend with Lacock, which I was slightly bummed about. Turns out I didn’t have any reason to feel upset about, I find Lacock fascinating.

Owned by the National Trust in England, Lacock’s historic houses are being protected and carefully preserved. Folks who lived here rent from the Trust, and they’ve built a pretty vibrant and self-sufficient community. There’s an Abbey, pub, school, bakery, handicraft shop and even a Bed & Breakfast.

Garden in Lacock
A super quaint garden in Lacock, you can grow your own produce here.

Lacock’s quintessentially English houses makes the village a popular location for film productions. Our tour guide shared that some of the bigger productions shot here include the BBC production of Pride & Prejudice and two Harry Potter instalments: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  For Pride and Prejudice, the narrow tarred roads were filled with dirt to make way for horse carriages. The villagers had to park their cars somewhere else during the period.

For the Harry Potter movies, there were a few structures in Lacock used in the productions. The Lacock Abbey’s intricate Gothic interior provided the backdrop as part of some scenes in Hogwarts. Incidentally, the Abbey was also one of the major film locations for The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman and Scarlet Johanssen.  One of the houses in the village was used as an exterior shot for Harry Potter’s family house in the Philosopher’s Stone.

Lacock Abbey
The Lacock Abbey, location of a few big Hollywood productions.
Lacock featured in Harry Potter movies.
You can see Dumbledore and Harry Potter walking past this blue door in the Half Blood Prince.
The house that Harry Potter lived!
Up the garden path. This is the house that Harry Potter’s parents lived.

Apart from the mini film location tour, we were practically led around the entire village, with the guide pointing to us the various places of interest- the old workhouse that’s now a Pottery B&B, the medieval St Cyriac’s Church, a 14th century tithe barn and an 18th century lock-up room, something like a jail.

The medieval St Cyriac's Church.
The medieval St Cyriac’s Church.
Coffee shop in Lacock
Come in for a cup of coffee.
Wiltshire Handicrafts
Wiltshire Handicrafts, in a 13th century house where you can find beautifully hand-crafted gifts.
Tea Room & Garden in Lacock
And if it’s the afternoon, come on in for a spot of tea.

We ended the 1-hour tour of Lacock with a short stop at the local pub- At the Sign of the Angel. You can get a drink here and use their facilities. A quick glance on the walls and you’ll see several stills from the Harry Potter movies, all shot in the village.

At the Sign of the Angel pub in Lacock
Pop into the pub for a pint of beer before you leave.

Tip: Lacock is most likely one of the pitstops offered in tour packages to Stonehenge and Bath. It’ll be wise for you to make a trip to the bathroom at the pub. Your bus ride to the next destination might be long. The pub folks are friendly and wouldn’t mind you using their washrooms to freshen up.

The trip to Lacock may be short, but for a major movie buff like me, this accidental visit to this picturesque village has been an absolute bonus. Have you ever visited Lacock before?

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