Summer holiday crafts at Lacock

Plan ahead with our handy guide to each of the six weeks of the holiday crafts at Lacock Abbey. 

Sun catchers and sundials - 23-27 July

Our first week’s activities involve celebrating the summer sunshine through sun catchers and sundials. At Lacock we have a sundial on south east terrace of the Abbey. Explore the science of the sun and make your own sundial.

Family Crest - 30 July-3 August

This week we are decorating shields, our Great Hall has lots of individual shields on the ceiling and each one is for a different family. Join us to make your own.

Watercolour week - 6-10 August

A faithful Lacock favourite, we are inviting you to join us for a whole week of watercolour painting, in honour of the Talbot family who produced over 600 paintings during their time at Lacock Abbey. Take a clip-board and a piece of paper and head out in the grounds and gardens to draw a picture to then paint with watercolours back in the Botanic Garden activity tent. Let’s make a masterpiece!

Photography - 13-17 August

This is a take-over week from the staff and volunteers working with the Fenton photographic collection at the Fox Talbot Museum, with an activity to do with the invention of photography. On his honeymoon in Italy, and frustrated with not being able to draw what he saw, Fox Talbot wanted to find a different way of recording images. This week we will be creating photographic prints without a camera, creating Cyanotype pictures, printed directly onto paper by the sun.

***UPDATE***

This activity can not be pre-booked but there will be a waiting list set up in the craft tent on each morning throughout the week. There are limited spaces so please do pop in early to guarantee your place on this activity.   

Medieval Lacock - 20-24 August

Join us in Lacock's beautiful Botanic Garden for a week of family craft activities. This week we will be making stained glass windows, inspired by the windows in the stone gallery of the abbey which were installed to revive the medieval spirit of the nunnery.

Healing herbs gardening crafts - 27-31 August

Our current summer trail is all about healing herbs, and through this last week of craft activities, families will get the opportunity to grow their own and even make a little gift out of them. Budding mini-gardeners will get the opportunity to make seed bombs, herb pots, and decorated fabric herb sachets.

Alongside the activities in the craft tent, there are also outdoor games to enjoy around the Botanic Garden. There is also the Healing Herbs family trail, which is all about how the nuns of Lacock grew their own medicinal herbs 800 years ago.