Southampton to Heathrow via Lacock

---

Ron was very sad to have to disembark mid morning at Southampton, I think he would have liked to keep sailing back to Australia instead of flying. After picking up our hire car we decided to travel to Heathrow via Lacock which we had heard was a pictureque village and somewhere we could stop for lunch.

Lacock Village, dates back to the 13th-century, it has remained largely unchanged over the centuries and has many limewashed, half-timbered and stone houses. During the Middle Ages Lacock became a prosperous and thriving town through its wool industry. The village was well placed as it was on the 'cloth road' from London and the River Avon, which gave access to the sea at Avonmouth near Bristol.

The village has been used as a film and television set, notably for the 1995 BBC production of Pride and Prejudice, the 2007 BBC production of Cranford. It has also made brief appearances in the Harry Potter films Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We enjoyed strolling the streets, it was lovely to see so many wonderful cottages in streets with no power lines it was easy to see how the village was able to be used for film sets.

From Lacock we rejoined the motorway for our drive to the Sofitel at Heathrow, we had decided to stay at the airport as we had an early morning flight the following morning. After dropping off our bags we drove to the nearby town of Colnbrook to have dinner at The Ostrich Inn, the third oldest pub in the UK. Dating from 1106. The Ostrich is a lovely example of an historic coaching inn: beams, fireplaces, crooked stairs, a cobbled courtyard and an interesting history. The food and atmosphere were great, much better than we had hoped for, a lovely last night out in England.

---

Photos

The tithe barn
In medieval times this is where the village brought their rent in kind, one tenth of their output. (Tithe being old English for ten)