Treasures to see at Lacock Abbey

A 14th-century handwritten book

We know very little about the everyday world of the nuns at Lacock Abbey. However, one of the most important books in the collection gives a remarkable and rare glimpse into how they might have lived their lives.

The book, Expositiones Vocabulorum Bibliae, was written by William Brito – sometimes known as Guillaume le Breton – in the 14th century. Written in Latin on parchment, it's an alphabetical list of difficult words in the Bible, giving explanations, origins and etymologies.

Lacock Abbey and the wool trade

The book, which is handwritten in several different hands, was rebound using 13th-century parchment scraps from the Abbey’s financial accounts. Those fragments record both expenses and receipts, including the sale of wool. This was an important trade in Lacock and provided an income for the abbey.

Surviving King Henry VIII

It's one of very few monastic books to survive the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII in the 1530s and still be in its original location – the others are all in cathedral libraries. The Brito was brought back to the abbey after the National Trust acquired it at auction in 2011.

A Tudor stone table

When Lacock Abbey became a private home after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, its Tudor owner was keen to show off his wealth and sophistication. Sir William Sharington extensively remodelled the former nunnery and commissioned a distinctive stone table to fit his new octagonal tower.

This table is the centrepiece of the tower’s middle storey, or ‘Strong Room’, a place to display treasured objects and to study.

The carving details

The decorative Purbeck marble top is shaped as an octagon to mirror the shape of the tower. The table top is supported by four crouching, leering satyrs (half-man, half-goat), who balance baskets of fruit upon their heads.

Standing on a cross-shaped base, they're carved from a hard-wearing oolitic limestone.

Tudor stone carver

The table is attributed to the stone carver John Chapman. Chapman worked for the leading figures of the Protestant regimes of King Henry VIII and Edward VI, including Sir John Thynne (c.1515-80) at Longleat estate, also in Wiltshire. 

How to view the table

You can view the table from all sides thanks to its unique position in the octagonal tower. Look out for the initials of the owner hidden within the distinctive scorpion-shaped badge.