Where was 'Downton Abbey' filmed?
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The elegant extension of Downton Abbey from the small to big screen continues – though this second cinematic excursion comes with a cunning twist. After 2019’s film adaptation enlarged the scale of the TV drama with a royal visit to Downton, its sequel takes the Crawley family on a rather modern adventure and to pastures new.
Set in 1928, just a few months after the end of the first film, A New Era presents the Crawleys with two unexpected opportunities. The first is the offer to rent Downton Abbey as the location for a Hollywood film – which brings us the gifts of guest stars Dominic West and Laura Haddock as movie stars and Hugh Dancy as their troubled director.
The second is the Dowager Countess’s surprise inheritance of a villa in France, formerly home to the mysterious Marquis de Montmirail. The combination of the two events sees the Crawleys taking a trip en masse to the Riviera, where they encounter the Marquis’ widow as played by French superstar Nathalie Baye, and a new way of living. It shows them in an entirely new light – and some new spectacular locations.
Of course, we’re first of all reunited with the Crawley family in Downton Abbey’s home for its 2010-15 run, Highclere Castle in Hampshire. Originally listed in the Doomsday Book, this pre-medieval pile was remodelled in Bath stone and Jacobethan style in the 1840s by Sir Charles Barry, architect of the Houses of Parliament. Home to Fellowes’ pal the Earl of Carnarvon, who claims the boost from Downton has been responsible for its survival, it’s home to a rich collection of Egyptian artefacts inherited from the 5th Earl, sponsor of Howard Carter’s discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. We’re intimately familiar with the shelf-lined library, which Fellowes calls ‘an absolutely marvellous room, a very quintessential English Library’, the Dining Room with Van Dyck’s famous painting of Charles I, and perhaps most of all the gothic Saloon: the Great Hall at Downton, but also the location of a masked orgy in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film Eyes Wide Shut.
A New Era then takes us to another English country house for the wedding of Tom Branson (Allen Leech) and Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton), whose romance was a feature of the 2019 movie. This takes place at Belchamp Hall in Belchamp Walter, Essex, close to the Suffolk border, playing the home of Lady Bagshaw (Imelda Staunton). A Queen Anne-period building, it is now a wedding venue with accommodation, though it has screen pedigree as the residence of Lady Jane Felsham in 80s comedy-drama Lovejoy. For Downton, it fitted the bill on two counts: ‘It had to be a house that was smaller in size than Highclere but still had its own identity,’ explains production designer Donal Woods. ‘It also needed to have a church next to it, which is actually difficult to find.’
The big new location, though, is the villa in France, played by La Rocabella in Le Pradet. As producer Gareth Neame points out, ‘We’ve never seen the family travel beyond their own shores before. I’d always wanted to bring the Crawleys to Europe and to the Riviera in particular because it is a part of Europe that the English upper classes would have visited.’ The perfect house turned out to be on the coast near Toulon, chosen from a shortlist of five on the basis that it would bring out an unexpected side of the family. ‘It overlooked the Mediterranean and it had gorgeous gardens and its own little secluded beach,’ explains producer Liz Trubridge. ‘It provided lots of space and vistas for dinners outside on the terrace – situations we would rarely see the Crawleys in.’
Built at the end of the 19th century by industrialist Jules Patin and designed by Danish architect Hans-Georg Tersling, the 11-bedroom La Rocabella is now a conference centre that’s also available for private bookings. Its neoclassical purity and amazing position on the Mediterranean make it just the place for a high-class 1920s adventure, particularly with the aid of some expert interior redecoration. ‘The English aristocracy would have had lots of heavy gilt framed paintings and family portraits in their home and the French were a little more modern and forward thinking at that time,’ says production designer Woods. ‘We filled the rooms with a few pieces of 1920s ‘modern art’, but mostly we had bare walls and far less furniture because it was a holiday home.’
It’s fair to say we see a new side of the English aristocracy here, adapting to the era’s new approach to travel as pioneered by Americans such as F Scott Fitzgerald. For this, the Riviera and its villa are as key to mood as Highclere has been throughout Downton’s lifespan.
Where was the first Downton Abbey film filmed?
Released in 2019, Downton Abbey’s first big-screen outing was more of a return to old haunts than its sequel. Though the cast was boosted by additions including Imelda Staunton, Tuppence Middleton and Stephen Campbell Moore, creator Julian Fellowes was moved to compare it to ‘the first day back at school’, and the TV cast were largely seen in the usual array of England’s stateliest homes, best-kept villages and most rolling hills.
As well as Highclere Castle, another centrepiece used was Bampton, the Oxfordshire hamlet that stands in for the village of Downton. As before, the former Grammar School, now a library, was converted into the Cottage Hospital and the Post Office (in fact a private home) was resurrected. We also saw St Mary’s Church, renamed St Michael and All Angels, where Mary Crawley (Michelle Dockery) married and Edith Crawley (Laura Carmichael) famously didn’t, and Churchgate House, the first home of Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton). They also returned to the Wiltshire village of Lacock, which reprised its appearance as a livestock market in Season 6, and staged a celebration with horses from the Royal Artillery.
The production also found itself close to Downton’s fictional location in Yorkshire. Pickering rail station on the North Yorkshire Moors stood in for London’s King’s Cross, while Harewood House, an 18th-century Palladian country house near Leeds, was used for a party scene. Further north, they visited County Durham and the Beamish Museum, used in the television finale as the HQ of Henry Talbot’s car business and in the film for scenes in York.
Where was the Downton Abbey TV show filmed?
While the TV show made a star of Highclere Castle, it also made use of many other regular locations over its five-year run. These include Basildon Park in Reading, used as the interior of Grantham House, the family’s London residence (the exterior is Bridgewater House on Cleveland Row, Westminster). This 18th-century house, saved from ruin in the 1950s, is just as grand as it appears on screen, even if the rooms are often repurposed, as with the dining room’s deployment as a ballroom. Smaller but just as lovely is Byfleet Manor in Surrey, which plays the home of the Dowager Violet (Dame Maggie Smith). Once frequented by royalty from the Black Prince to Henry VIII, it now serves afternoon tea (in the Downton Room or garden) and offers overnight accommodation in its West Wing. Also in the London outskirts is West Wycombe House, home of 18th-century libertine Sir Francis Dashwood, used as the home of Lady Rosamund (Samantha Bond). Notable for its spectacular colonnade, it has featured in 2008 film The Duchess and TV series Cranford, as well as Julian Fellowes’ Downton follow-up, Doctor Thorne.
As in the film adaptation, Bampton in Oxfordshire was used for the village of Downton. The TV production stayed close by for other village scenes: Shilton, to the north-west, is where Mr Bates (Brendan Coyle) took over the Red Lion pub (really The Old Forge), while The Swan in Swinbrook, just a couple of miles further on, saw Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) and chauffeur Branson (Allan Leech) plotting their elopement.
The series-long career meant it was able to take in other one-off locations. These included Alnwick Castle in Northumberland (pictured above), renamed Brancaster Castle as the venue for the family shooting party. Filming for the two Christmas specials here in 2014 and 2015 made the most of the State Rooms and grounds, as well as nearby Hulne Abbey. Another memorable trip was taken to Inverary Castle in western Scotland, billed as Duneagle Castle, home to Rose MacClare (Lily James). Mary and Matthew’s visit gave us all a chance to enjoy the splendour of its 18th-century neo-Gothic towers.
Downton Abbey: A New Era is released in cinemas on 29 April 2022