The Virtual Wroxton Abbey

Explore Wroxton Abbey, its gardens and ponds, and Wroxton Village in this virtual reality tour. Within its 141 different locations, you will find all the stately rooms of the Abbey, such as the Great Hall and the Regency Room, as well as some of its hidden treasures. 

The tour of the estate’s “pleasure grounds” will take you from the gatehouse at one end of the property, through the Doric Temple, the Knot Garden, and the two ponds at the other end. You can even locate the Prince of Wales Obelisk and the Drayton Arch beyond the modern estate’s boundaries.

 
Click the image above to enter the virtual-reality tour.

Some of the rooms, e.g. the Great Hall and the Chapel, allow the user to click on various objects to examine them in greater detail. Somewhere within the corridor of stately rooms on the second floor, you may encounter a ghost story if you look carefully.

The Virtual Wroxton Abbey encompasses 141 panoramic 360° images made in 2022 using both conventional and aerial (drone) photography. Users can explore each scene of the VR tour by dragging with the mouse or a laptop’s trackpad. Zooming in or out is done with the mouse wheel, or by two-fingered dragging on a trackpad. On a smartphone the user may “pinch” to zoom in or out.

Navigation from one scene (VR node) to another is done by clicking, or touching, the pulsating circular “hotspots,” which link the scenes together. Other hotspots, identified by an “I” within a yellow circle, will lead to a brief text explanation of that particular view. In addition, some scenes include pop-up details. Some of the paintings found on the walls may be expanded in this way. When present, these pop-up details are mentioned in the scene’s “info” hotspot.

To switch into (or out from) full-screen view, double-click anywhere on the screen.

Students at North Arms. Click for VR.

While previous generations of Wroxton College students will think back fondly to their memories of good times at the North Arms, sadly the pub is now permanently closed. The historic structure, probably dating from the middle of the 17th century, will be renovated into a private residence. The VR scenes of the pub, while removed from the full Virtual Wroxton Abbey tour, remain available. Members of the Wroxton College class of Spring, 2010, pictured to the left at the North Arms, will find this especially memorable, as they are featured in the VR tour’s “Quiz Night” node, which includes an audio track. To view this VR tour, click that image.

 

Certainly the most immersive experience of the Virtual Wroxton Abbey is available to those who have access to a head-mounted display (HMD), such as a Meta (formerly Oculus) Quest, or the Apple Vision Pro. Using a HMD, the virtual tour completely dominates the visual field of the user, isolating them from all environmental distractions. The headset fills the entire field of view with the VR experience. The user simply moves their head or rotate their body to explore the 360° virtual space of Wroxton Abbey. If you have such a device, or wish to learn more, click the image to the right.

The Virtual Wroxton Abbey CD-ROM

The online Virtual Wroxton Abbey VR tour was adapted from the 2003 CD-ROM of the same name, which won the “Best of Festival” award from the Broadcast Education Association that year. The project was created by Wroxton College alumnus Howard Goldbaum (Spring, 1968), assisted in the research at Wroxton Abbey by his classmate Angela Amoroso.

Angela Amoroso and Howard Goldbaum

The two years of photography and the additional year of production were supported in part by grants from the College of Communication and Fine Arts at Bradley University (Illinois), and the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada, Reno. Wroxton College Dean Nicholas Baldwin, and other members of the faculty and staff provided essential support and encouragement. Additional elements were photographed in 2010. In 2022 all the VR photography was recreated, using newer technologies including overhead (drone) VR views. The interface was updated to ensure its compatibility with all modern devices, such as smart phones and head-mounted displays, such as the Meta Quest.