V is for Lacock Village

The A-Z Tour of Harry Potter Film Locations today visits Lacock Village.

Lacock Village is located near Chippenham in North Wiltshire.  The village dates back to the 13th century, and is owned almost entirely by the National Trust.  Lacock is Heritage listed - meaning that no physical changes can be made to the outside of any of the buildings.  Electricity, telephone and television cables all run under the ground to preserve the look of the place.  As such, it is a popular filming location, having been used for Pride and Prejudice, Downton Abbey, Cranford, Emma, and Harry Potter to name a few.  Lacock was one of my favourite places to visit in the UK - the old-world feel was incredible, and the buildings were beautiful.  It was one of the places I visited a couple of times, taking my mother back there when she visited me in 2013.

Lacock Village
The village itself appeared in The Half-Blood Prince, standing in for the village of Budleigh Babberton.  Professor Dumbledore and Harry apperate to the centre of the village at the foot of a monument in the middle of the junction between Church Street, West Street and Chapel Hill.  The monument itself was a fibreglass model constructed by the production crew.  Dumbledore and Harry then head down along Church Street, before (magically) appearing in front of a muggle house on Chapel Hill.  This house had become the temporary hideout of Professor Horace Slughorn.  Slughorn, on the run from the Death Eaters.

Lacock Abbey 
Lacock Abbey was founded in the early 13th century as a nunnery of the Augustinian order.  It remained a nunnery until the 16th century when it was turned into a residency.  In the 19th century it was the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, a pioneer of photography.  Lacock Abbey was used to film several classroom sequences in the first two films – back when they didn’t have the budget to build studio sets.

The Sacristy was used for Professor Snape’s classroom in The Philosopher’s Stone

The Warming Room, with its in-situ cauldron, was used for Professor Quirrel’s classroom, seen when Professor McGonagall asks to speak to Oliver Wood.

In The Philosopher’s stone, the Chapter House was the original home of the Mirror of Erised, which shows Harry his heart’s desire, while in The Chamber of Secrets it had been converted into the study room where Harry becomes the topic of whispered conversation after it is revealed he speaks Parseltongue.  A popular place, the Chapter House reappeared in The Half Blood Prince as the room in which Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape examine the cursed necklace.

The Abbey's Cloisters were used for some of the Hogwarts corridors.  They can be seen in The Philosopher’s Stone when Professor McGonagall is walking to find Oliver Wood, and again in The Chamber of Secrets when Harry first hears the voice of the Basilisk snake.

Over at Fangirl Stitches I'm drawing near the finish of my mammoth A-Z stitching challenge - cross stitching both a Pokemon and a Supernatural Alphabet.

Happy travels

Ros