Adults only – sampling southern England COMPLETED - Page 29 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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WOW, I just read this TR from the beginning to present. It is so remarkable, I just enjoyed the entire journey so far. You report your travels so well, I feel like I am there too!!!!
I had a really good one at the Poly a few years ago at Kona Cafe
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
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Wednesday 7 May – part two: trying to outrun the rain…
We headed around the front of the house…
Eventually we headed inside the historic house. I had a quaint idea of maybe getting some photos done inside, but I’d already seen the Chinese room was full of people, and my goodness the Great Hall was absolutely packed out too!
We wandered out of the front of the house, and headed back to the car to head out for the day. I was very pleased and, given the appalling weather forecast for tomorrow (pretty much heavy rain all day ) very relieved we’d been able to get some photos done.
It was our first time leaving the complex, so it was neat to drive out along the long drive we’d seen yesterday when we did our rifle shooting…
We were soon heading through country lanes, passing by thatched cottages…
Then we were on the M4 motorway. I tried to capture this, but didn’t do a great job of it…
Why was this important? Well, we’ll return to that later in the day, when I’ll give you the story behind the name of this place – and as you might be able to tell from the photo, it’s a fairly recent name change.
Soon we were heading into Lacock.
This whole village is owned by the National Trust. We parked up and headed first for the Abbey. As we walked over, there was a menacing dark cloud in the sky, so we quickened our pace. As you can see, it had been a bit windy…
I only grabbed a few photos quickly as we walked, as it felt as if we were trying to outrun the rain….
If you think this doesn’t look much like an abbey, well you wouldn’t be that far out, as I’ll explain in due course. You start your visit downstairs in the abbey cloisters, where you get some lovely views across the grass courtyard…
… and inside the cloisters themselves.
I was fascinated by these, which were on the ceilings of the cloisters. I can only assume they were coats of arms for people, as sadly I never saw an explanation about them.
Beautiful day so far! Those cloisters are just fascinating architecture.
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Tanya
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Great photos from LaCock Abbey and love the ones of the cloisters! Just so amazing!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Wednesday 7 May – part three: exploring the abbey…
The abbey dates back over 800 years, and was set up for nuns. The cloisters were used for quiet contemplation and originally they were built from Purbeck marble columns with a wooden roof over the walkways, but as the abbey achieved greater wealth, it was ploughed back into the building and a more elaborate roof was created.
When King Henry VII got on to the throne, he started the “Dissolution”, which essentially dissolved religious houses like Lacock Abbey. Nuns or monks were evicted and the buildings were sold. In Lacock’s case, it was sold to Sir William Sharington in 1540.
The first room you come to is the sacristy, which is believed to date back to the 1230s, making it the oldest parts of the abbey to survive. Some of the plaster on the walls and ceiling in here actually dates back to that time, which I found just amazing. I guess they built things to last back then…
Then we headed into the Chapter House, which is where the nuns would gather to listen to a chapter from the set of rules that guided their lives. Business matters might also have been discussed here, and it was quite a business too, as it included Lacock village and some of the surrounding area, as well as land as far afield as the Isle of Wight, which is more than 100 miles away.
Next we went into the Warming House, and as the description in here said, this must’ve been the most popular room in the whole abbey, as it was the only room with a roaring fire. However, don’t get too excited, as they were only allowed this fire between All Saints’ Day on 1 November and Good Friday. The cauldron you can see in here dates from around 1500 and was made in Antwerp, although sadly no-one knows how it ended up here, which is a shame. It might have been used in the nuns’ kitchen or it could simply have been a garden ornament.
Now for anyone thinking that the abbey looks a bit familiar, here’s your answer…
Personally we’ve never seen any of the Harry Potter films (I know, I know!), so it meant nothing to us, but it might to others…
Now the next couple of rooms I can’t tell you anything about, as there were no cards explaining about them. They were both very cold and pretty dark, I can tell you that much!
Remember Sir William Sharington, who bought the abbey? Well, when he got his hands on it, he converted the upstairs of the abbey into a family home and some of the ground floor rooms were used for storage. His descendants lived here until 2011, which I thought was pretty neat. That’s where we headed next. In the first room was this display…
Then we visited the small (!) wine cellar.
Our next stop was the kitchen…
Then it was upstairs. The first room we went into up here was the Cooking Room. This was used by the last family owner of the abbey, Matilda Talbot, for her cooking lessons. She’d trained as a cook in London and specialised as a cookery teacher, and good for her, ensuring she taught ordinary women and girls.
Next we headed into the Brown Gallery, named simply because of its appearance. This area was once the nuns’ refectory, where they ate their one meal a day, prepared in the kitchen downstairs, although obviously it looked a lot different when they were here.
How cool about that being a setting for the Harry Potter movies!! Have you not read them, either? I normally am not a fan at all of that genre, but finally decided to give them a try after DH & DS raved about them. I read the entire series in six weeks - once I started I couldn't stop (I think I finished the first 2 in three days). Give them a try - and I always recommend books before movies - the movies are good, but quite abbreviated.
Can't imagine some of that plaster dating back nearly 1000 years!
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PassPorter Guide Author
. It is so remarkable, I just enjoyed the entire journey so far
. You report your travels so well, I feel like I am there too
!!!!
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Thank
Pixie Dust
Your Eggs Benedict looks so good! 
) very relieved we’d been able to get some photos done. 
the cloisters at Lacock Abbey! So beautiful and calming. 
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