Desperately Seeking Darcy

So at the weekend, I spent a lovely few hours with Michele doing a re-watch of the 1995 tv mini series of Janes Austens ‘Pride and Prejudice’. We hadn’t meant to watch the whole thing , but it was just too good to stop.

It’s a really lovely adaptation with beautiful scenery and costumes plus it launched the career of Colin Firth with his moody staring Mr Darcy. It also featured many actors looking incredibly youthful and whom I almost didn’t recognise such as Emilia Fox as Darcy’s sister, Julia Sawalha as Lydia and Lucy Davis as Maria Lucas.

The scenery is just to die for, rolling hills in Derbyshire and grand houses such as Lyme Park in Cheshire posing as Pemberely ( Darcys residence) , Belton House in Lincolnshire which was Lady Catherine de Bourgh’s home and the village of Meryton which was filmed in the beautiful village of Lacock.

Today I had to go to the Wiltshire town of Melksham for a work related reason. Melksham is almost a 1 hour drive from where I live, thankfully my partner pointed out a benefit to this. On the way I would be driving past the village of Lacock!  So he suggested he come with me and that on the way back we stop off and walk around Lacock.

Lacock Village is mostly owned by the National Trust as it was bequeathed to them in 1944. They ensure it keeps its quaint historic feel and because of that, it is used quite regularly for filming TV programs and movies. Most famous scenes include Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter, Downton Abbey and Cranford. You won’t see a satellite dish on any building in Lacock!

 

 

You can walk around the village for free, but parking  is in the National Trust car park and there is an entrance fee for Lacock Abbey/Fox Talbot Museum. I realised the Abbey had reopened today, but we weren’t really in the mood for a full days visit.

The village is featured in the Domesday Book, a survey of England and Wales, back in 1086. Most of the houses are of 18th Century or earlier and the most notable buildings are the Abbey and the Tithe Barn.

The weather today was reasonable, cool but windy and slightly overcast.

Our walk all round the village took a couple of hours and i ended up taking 175 photographs! Because we are still in the Covid -19 Pandemic the village was not busy, I imagine at this time of year, even on a Monday, it would have been much busier. We literally just saw a few people who were visitors and a few dog walkers/joggers. None of the shops or pubs were open either.

So down to business, I took some screen shots from 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice and put them alongside photos i took today!

First the fabulous Lizzie Bennett, played by the beautiful Jennifer Ehle,  with the sneaky Mr Wickham.

 

 

Next up, Lydia Bennett is terribly excited when she see’s the chaps across the street! I loved this clock door arrangement.

 

 

Oh look , it’s the ‘Gentlemen’ that Lydia have spied across the street!

I didn’t have the right angle for this shot, tbh I didn’t look up  screenshots before my visit!

 

 

 

and final general street scenes!

Well i hoped you enjoyed my little tour of street scenes from Lacock and Pride and Prejudice. I will probably do another post generally because it was so beautiful and I took ALL of the photos!

Sadly, no Mr Darcy to be seen but I won’t complain as I do already have my own brooding, brown wavy haired chap!