Lacock Abbey (monastery)

Lacock Abbey
Lacock Abbey, the cloister
Monastery information
Full nameThe Abbey Church of the Blessed Mary and St Bernard
Other names"locus beate Marie" ("the place of the Blessed Mary")
OrderAugustinian Canonesses regular
Established1229
Disestablished1539
Dedicated toVirgin Mary
DioceseSalisbury
People
Founder(s)Ela, 3rd Countess of Salisbury
Site
LocationLacock, Wiltshire, England
Visible remainsmost extensive remains of a medieval nunnery in England, but church demolished
Public accessNational Trust

Lacock Abbey was a monastery founded at Lacock, in the county of Wiltshire in England, in the early 13th century by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, as a house of Augustinian Canonesses regular. It was seized by the crown in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. It then became a country house, Lacock Abbey, notable as the site of Henry Fox Talbot's early experiments in photography.