Return to England! Bath and Lacock Abbey

I was telling people that this had been my busiest summer in seven years, but then I realized that seven years ago, I was still in a teaching job (not working during the summer). Since I now work full time year-round, this summer has probably been the busiest summer I’ve ever had!

I’m back from all my travels and am starting to settle back into a somewhat normal weekly routine so I wanted to share about my trip! In June, I went to England with some people from my church (happy to share about this experience in person) and was also able to extend my trip for some personal vacation.

Before starting ministry, our team had a few days of sight seeing to get over jetlag. The first stop was Bath. We were so jetlagged at this point so I’m sure there were many things I would have enjoyed with a little more time and a clearer head, but was thankful for what we did get to see. We had a wonderful guide for a free walking tour of Bath, including seeing where Jane Austen lived while in Bath, Mary Shelley’s house, the very impressive Royal Crescent, the weir, etc.

I loved looking at all the Georgian architecture. Bath is one of the only places where a whole city is designated as a World Heritage site, due to its Roman and Georgian architecture. I got to see the end of the Cotswold Way in front of Bath Abbey (the lantern of England) and we attended evening prayer in the Abbey. It is a beautiful building and the liturgical prayer was meaningful, but it was really hard not to fall asleep due to the jet lag. The only thing keeping me awake was that I was terrified of hitting my head on the ornate wooden pews or stone floor if I nodded off during prayer! We took a tour of the Roman Baths (of course) and all of my middle school Latin classes came flooding back to me.

The next day, we went to Lacock Abbey (built in the 1200s) and Lacock Village. For some people, the main attraction to Lacock Abbey was that it was one of the film sites for Harry Potter. The thing that captured my interest was that it was the home of a family who did very early experimentation in photography. Henry Talbot did much groundbreaking experimentation and early inventions connected with photography. The first photo negative was taken of this window in Lacock Abbey in 1835!

It was so neat to be on the spot where a scientific discovery was made, but also an artform was created! Henry’s wife Constance Talbot is believed to have been the first woman to take a photograph. A family friend, Anna Atkins, experimented with botanicals and published the first photographically illustrated book in 1843 using cyanotype.

The village by the abbey was fun to roam around. I love all the old stone buildings, gardens, churches, and footpaths! We had lunch at The George Inn (established in 1361).

I’ll share more pictures and posts over the next few weeks!