About the county

Wiltshire definitely has a claim of being ranked up there with the Pottiest.

For a start The Hogwarts Express is a Swindonian born and built and of course it's well known that Malfoy Manor, the ancestral pile of Draco Malfoy, is located deep in the Wiltshire countryside.

Wiltshire's Hogwarts

But the county's biggest claim on 'Potterdom' is Lacock Abbey which proved far from camera shy when it doubled as the setting for the interior shots of the infamous Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the first two Potter films.

Now, however, the ancient Abbey's list of film credits is about to get another HP boost as Warner Brothers descend on the village again to begin filming the sixth and penultimate movie "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince".

And this time round it's not just the cloisters and Abbey that have been booked as a backdrop. 

According to the online Internet Movie database, IMDB, Church Street in Lacock and the ancient inn The Angel are also listed as locations.

Four spooky nights of filming

It was back in August that moviemakers were given the go ahead to return to Lacock to shoot the next film. Despite the disruption to traffic the film's producers were given almost unanimous approval, from both villagers and the National Trust, to start shooting.

So this October, it's reported, camera crews will be heading back to the Abbey and village for three nights of spooky filming. 

And the latest, according to the Leaky Cauldron website, is that filming will start this Wednesday October 24th. Road closures have already been posted, for the hours between 5:00pm and 5:00am, on Cantax Hill, West Street and Church Street and it's been reported that the actors Dan Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldermort) will be among those filming the scenes.

With three days of shooting planned, all of which it's rumoured will be done at night, it has to be asked: What scenes exactly have been ear marked for the Wiltshire location?

Lacock aka Spinner's End?

For the first two Harry Potter films, Lacock made numerous appearances not only moonlighting as the classrooms of Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell but also the corridor, just outside Dumbledore’s office, that saw Dobby send Lucius Malfoy flying with the words "You shall not harm Harry Potter".

So surely Lacock's famous cloisters and chambers must be reprising their role of Hogwarts albeit a Hogwarts after dark…

But are they?

Could, for instance, Lacock's octagonal tower have landed the role of the Astronomy Tower, the tallest tower at Hogwarts? Could it be the setting for the climax of the movie, the killing of Albus Dumbledore at the hands of Severus Snape?

Or could the quaint village itself have gotten away with being industrial enough (it's definitely cobbled enough) to bag the part of Spinner's End, the mill-town and summer home of Severus Snape, where the head of Slytherin is sworn to an Unbreakable Vow?

Or could it be ordinary enough, as 'Muggle' villages go, to step in as Budleigh Babberton the bolt hole where Dumbledore and HP manage to track down Horace Slughorn the former Hogwarts potions master in hiding?

And, with just four nights of filming penciled in for both the village and Abbey, could there really be enough time for camera crews to get the Hogwart's Battle scene in the can?

All in all though, no matter what the role, Lacock again looks set to become a 'Muggle Must See'....

Filming of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' is expected to take place between 5:00pm and 5:00am over three nights from 24th October, 2007. 

The film's producers Warner Brothers have been given the go ahead, by both the Abbey’s owners the National Trust and the Lacock Parish Council, to film scenes in and around Church Street and the Angel in Lacock as well at Lacock Abbey.