Ever since we moved to England in 2012, we have become big fans of Downton Abbey. We had to catch up on the first two seasons of DA by checking them out from our library, but then we got into the middle of all the intrigue at the end of September of 2012 as it aired on British television (a few months before our American friends could watch it on PBS). Three seasons later and it’s still interesting to watch BUT not as exciting as it was when Matthew was in it (if you have ever watched Downton Abbey, you know what I am talking about).
We figured while we are in this country, we should probably go visit a few sites where this TV show is filmed The most famous one, of course, is the Downton Abbey house, which is actually Highclere Castle, a beautiful home west of London. It is extremely difficult to get tickets for it as they are only sold for certain periods of time and never for Saturdays. They are not cheap either. So we haven’t yet figured out a way to see the inside of the house, but I’ll get to that later.
This particular Saturday, we decided to forget about the frigid windy weather and venture out two hours south of our home to visit Basildon Park. We left by 8:30 am and were at the property right on time for the 11 am house tour.
Wow, what an interesting story this house has. It was built in 1776-1783 by Sir Francis Sykes but not really completed. It went through several owners until the beginning of the 20th century when it served as an army hospital. Sold again, and again. There was even an attempt to dismantle it, ship it to the US and rebuild it, but that didn’t work. During WWII, Basildon Park was used as barracks, prisoners of war camp and even training ground for tanks. After the war, it stood pretty destroyed and abandoned. Only in the 1950s, Lord and Lady Lliffe decided to buy the house and make it a beautiful home.
Lady Lliffe was a frugal and creative lady. She was what we call now a professional upcycler—she collected bits and pieces from different places, second-hand shops and such and used them to decorate Basildon home. The house is not extravagant, but very elegant. Carpets, curtains, pictures—all suit its humble nature perfectly. It’s truly a very simple but beautiful house.
But wait…why did we even start this post with Downton Abbey speech if we went to Basildon Park?
Well, Basildon Park is actually where DA’s Christmas season finale 2013 was filmed. This is where Lady Rose meets the Prince and stuff like that. This dining room is where most of the action was happening:
And here is a DA shot.
We have our own ball going over here.
If you are ever at Basildon, do take the house tour as it bring the house alive. The kids all enjoyed the story and did such a great job listening to the narration. They had to count how many hidden snowmen they found around the house as they went from room to room-brilliant idea to keep them occupied!
In one of the hallways, we found a grand piano, as in many other estate houses. The sign said, “You are welcome to play anything except “Chopstix””. So of course, Katya and Alex had to try.
Yes, it was that cold—Alex is wearing his warm hat inside.
After a pleasant tour, we did something we rarely do in these estate homes—we treated our kids to cake and hot chocolate at the tea room! They were in heaven! Of course, we had to all share two big pieces of cake since each one costs as much as a sandwich in the states, but everyone was happy.
Although we didn’t have tickets to Highclere Castle, our plan was to drive by it to see how much we can see from the road without going inside. I know that there are public footpaths all around the castle so technically we could just stroll around it and at least see the castle grounds.
It was only a 20-30 min drive from Basildon and we found Highclere just fine BUT at the gate of the castle we were turned around by the guard who explained that today the grounds were closed as the family was entertaining. Normally, indeed, you can park and walk around the castle on public footpaths, but not today.
Sad.
We quickly rearranged our plan and not wanting to drive to Oxford on this cold day, we headed for a small village of Bampton in Oxfordshire. Why Bampton? Since we are on this whole Downton Abbey filming location daytrip, that’s where we had to go to see where some outside shots were filmed in DA, namely scenes by the church and just random village streets scenes.
We arrived to the village, parked in a random place hoping that it would be obvious where the filming took place. It’s a good thing we kind of know how British villages are set up—High Street, Church Street, church, School Street (or End), school, Pub, a few shops—they are all very similar. So we just looked out for the church spear and figured we were in the right spot.
It was COLD!
But it was beautiful. Everything that you ever imagine English villages to be!
This the famous Bampton church which we see in Downton Abbey when someone gets married (Edith) or someone dies.
Look at these tombstones centuries old…
Right next to the church, you can find the Crawley house. It’s a private home, so we didn’t want to intrude by taking pictures.
We walked to the village library instead—it is right next door to the church as well. At first we thought it was closed so we passed it by on the way to church. But then we saw a couple of people go inside, so we decided to pay it a visit as well.
It’s a tiny place and it was crowded with a few more people who were actually….filming! But not filming Downton Abbey, just filming an interview with a couple of people who were cast as extras in Downton Abbey episodes. We listened to them for a bit (giggling inside as their experiences sounded a bit too familiar, but we didn’t mention anything about Katya being in a movie). We talked with them afterwards about the village and what it’s like to have filming crews there spend so many days. They said that pretty much all people in the village at some point have played a part in one of the episodes. How fun!
This building serves as the entrance to the hospital in Downton Abbey.
Bampton IS a pretty special village-typical Cotswolds village with houses built of stones, beautiful roofs and narrow streets. We walked around a bit (before our faces froze completely) and found a couple of curious spots like this shop…well, sorry, forgot to take a picture of the shop itself, but we did get a picture of the sign that is left on its door.
This is one of the “advertisements” left in front of the entrance. So traditional. So old.
And just for you to prove that places like this exist and they are a complete normal thing here—a picture of a pub/hotel. With a real ghost inside too! I just love English streets! So pretty.
It was getting late in the afternoon when we left Bampton and headed towards RAF Croughton, specifically to Deddington. We were not ready to leave this area without going out for dinner to our favorite PIE PLACE in the UK. It was a bit out of the way and added half an hour to our journey, but it’s so worth it! The Crown and Tuns is the place. Try it!
We actually met up with one of the other dentists from RAF Croughton and his family and had dinner together. It’s only an hour and 26 min from our house and I am telling you, we are going back this year for sure-haha.
And that is how a Downtown Abbey day ended. All were happy, fed and warm although it was still brutally cold outside.
Take care, Lyana.
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