St Cyriac's Church is a 14th-century

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

church, located in the village of

Lacock Lacock is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, England, about 3 miles (5 km) south of the town of Chippenham, and about outside the Cotswolds area. The village is owned almost in its entirety by the National Trust ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

History

The

Norman architecture The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used f ...

base to the current church, funded jointly by local landowners Edward of Salisbury of Lacock and

William II, Count of Eu William II, Count of Eu, feudal baron of Hastings (died about 1095) was a first generation Anglo-Norman nobleman, Count of Eu and rebel. Origins According to most authorities he was the son and heir of Robert, Count of Eu, (died before 1093), b ...

of Lackham, may have been built on the site of a previously established Saxon church. It is dedicated to a Norman saint, St. Cyriac. The interior has many later monuments to local land owners, including the Baynards, Bonhams, Crokes, Sharingtons, Talbots and Awdreys. The church was partly rebuilt in the 14th century, with decorated tracery in a north transept window. But with Lacock a prosperous

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

on the Bath, Somerset sheep droving route to London, a more extensive 15th-century rebuild was undertaken from the substantial local tax revenues. This created the

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

church on a traditional cruciform plan that exists today, and included the addition of a two-bay east chapel funded by the Bonham and Croke families, which has an east chancel arch window of 6 lights. In 1604 the recessed octagonal tower was rebuilt, followed later by the "cottage" or south annex, comprising two storeys; an attic was built in a rusticated style, described then as the "new Yle" in 1619. After his death in 1636, a series of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pl ...

s were placed in the church floor commemorating the life of Sir Robert Baynard. (These were stolen in mid-2004, but quickly returned after a national appeal by police.) The chancel was rebuilt in 1777, in a style out of keeping with the main late-medieval church. In the late 1800s, the new owners of Lackham House, the Baynard family, had the then named Lackham chapel, now the Lackham or Baynard, chapel completely rebuilt. A new roof was put on the transept, which was filled with north-facing pews for the Baynard family and their estate workers. In 1861, again funded by the Banyard family, A.W. Blomfield undertook restoration work on the church, including: raising of the transept roofs; a new front; breaking up of the high box pews; taking down the galleries and organ at the west end; breaking in half of ledger stones from the floor. In 1902, Sir Harold Brakspear remodelled the church in a way sympathetic to his friend and local resident, the photographic pioneer

William Henry Fox Talbot William Henry Fox Talbot FRS FRSE Royal Astronomical Society, FRAS (; 11 February 180017 September 1877) was an English scientist, inventor, and photography pioneer who invented the Salt print, salted paper and calotype processes, precursors t ...

. In 1960 the church was designated as Grade I listed.

Present day

In recent years, the church has been subject to a series of improvement programmes, enabled by public donation, private subscription and funding from national bodies. These have been co-ordinated by both the Friends of Lacock Church and the Lacock Parochial Church Council (LPCC) and included the re-roofing of the Nave and South Transept in 2006.

Lacock Cup

Until 1962, when it was lent to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the church was home to a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

chalice A chalice (from Latin 'mug', borrowed from Ancient Greek () 'cup') or goblet is a footed cup intended to hold a drink. In religious practice, a chalice is often used for drinking during a ceremony or may carry a certain symbolic meaning. R ...

, known as the Lacock Cup. Dating from the mid-15th century, the cup has been described as "one of the most significant pieces of secular English medieval silver". In 2009, LPCC had the cup valued at £1.8M. After approval of the cup's sale by a

Consistory court A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the ...

in December 2012, it was sold to a joint bid by the British Museum and the

Wiltshire Museum The Wiltshire Museum, formerly known as Wiltshire Heritage Museum and Devizes Museum, is a museum, archive and library and art gallery in Devizes, Wiltshire, England. The museum was established and is run by the Wiltshire Archaeological and Natu ...

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between ...

. With the funds being invested to raise income to allow restoration of St Cyriac's infrastructure, as part of the sale agreement two replicas will be made: one for liturgical use at the church, and one to go on display at the Wiltshire Museum, when the original is not on display.

References

External links

Corsham and Lacock churches
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacock, Saint Cyriac Church of England church buildings in Wiltshire English churches with Norman architecture 11th-century church buildings in England Grade I listed churches in Wiltshire