Hello and welcome to Lacock Abbey. Today we're going to be doing a behind the scenes tour.
We're going to be showing you some things that are not currently on the visitor route,
but more excitingly what we're also going to be showing you are things that nobody ever normally gets to see.
Lacock's internationally famous as a birthplace for photography,
but not everyone's aware that we have a really deep history here as well.
Originated as a nunnery, and then in the 16th century it was taken over as a country home by a gentleman.
And it's his story that we're going to be focusing on today.
So welcome to the southern part of the property. We're on the first floor and we're in Sharington's Tower.
William Sharington he bought this property in 1539 after the dissolution of the monasteries.
And what's really interesting is Sharington, he didn't break down and destroy the abbey,
he actually incorporated it into his modern build, into his new build.
And that's something we can relate to today. That's conservation with change.
It's the sort of thing that you'd see in Grand Designs. So this room that we're in at the moment this is called the strong room.
And within it we have a stone table. It's a really unique example of Tudor furniture.
This is one of the National Trust's 125 Treasures, and you can see why. It's beautiful, it's exquisite, it's spectacular.
This hasn't moved since it was created by the master carver John Chapman who was renowned at the time,
and much sought after. What we've got here is a marble top and then a limestone base.
And what's beautiful about this is we have four figures carved into the limestone. They're a hybrid.
The top half is human. It looks like a man, and the bottom half is animal and it looks like a goat.
The modesty is covered by acanthus leaves and you can see the idea of acanthus being picked up
in the central part of the table. Now Sharington, he was never a shy chap. He liked to put his initials
and his motif on as much of the property as he could. We've got his initials down here,
but his insignia was a scorpion and I think that characterises the man to a tee. Always wanting more.
It's a work of art. It's not the only one we've got here. Let's go and see the other one as well.
So this is our second table and this is the table that most people don't get to see.
This is again made by John Chapman at the same time as the table below.
It had a marble top and limestone base. It has figures around the outside.
Two men with beards and two ladies as well. And inlayed into here we have the four seasons represented.
But interestingly winter's missing. What we've got instead is a cook, and Sharington probably knew what he was doing.
This is deliberate. He was showing that he was educated and understood culinary practices.
And also it's an indication of plenty. Plenty at the banqueting table and plenty in the landscape outside.
Unfortunately over time this table suffered. It's been unloved.
During the 17th century, during the Civil War, the parliamentary forces were here.
It looks like some people have taken hammers literally to the faces of the figures here.
There could be many motivations for this. It could be political, it could be religious.
It could be through fear or an assertion of power, or maybe just too many drinks one night.
But it was a concerted effort. What I would also like to show you is some of the mark-making that we have on the top here.
So let's have a look at that now. So the top of this table is literally covered in mark-making.
We've got episodes of overlay and underlay, superimposition. We've got date ranges in here.
We've got a possible date of 1665 which ties in with the defacement story. We've also got
people putting their initials in here. We've got concentric circles. We've got circles.
And these might have been used for protection. It might be a technology of enchantment or entrapment.
Thank you for joining me on this behind the scenes tour today and I hope to get to see you in person real soon.
And thank you also for your support in helping us to continue to look after these special places like Lacock.