Highclere Castle has
become so inextricably linked to the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey that
the area surrounding it has been christened "Downtonia". The hugely successful series, the brainchild
of Julian Fellowes, takes us through the emotional rollercoaster that makes up
the family life of the aristocratic Crawley
family and their servants during the reign of King George V. The latest series had a suitably dramatic
ending as Dan Stevens (playing Matthew Crawley) ruined everyone's Christmas by fatally
crashing his car in the show's Christmas special. The setting of the drama is a fictional
estate in Yorkshire which is the seat of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, but
the exterior shots and most of the interior ones were filmed at Highclere Castle, apart from certain areas such as
the servants' quarters, for which Ealing Studios was used.
The site occupied by Highclere Castle
was in medieval times the location of the palace of the Bishops of
Winchester. A house was later built on
its foundations, then later still Highclere
Castle came into
existence: it has been the seat of the Carnarvon family since 1679. In 1692 Robert Sawyer, a former Speaker of
the House of Commons and college friend of the 17th century diarist Samuel
Pepys, bequeathed a mansion at Highclere to his daughter Margaret, wife of the
8th Earl of Pembroke. It was their son,
Robert Saywer Herbert who began its picture collection and created the garden
temples. In the mid-19th century, the
architect responsible for the present incarnation of the Houses of Parliament,
carried out extensive rebuilding work on the house in an
"Anglo-Italian" style. The
park surrounding the castle was created according to a design by Capability Brown,
and the local village was actually moved during the process: the remains of the
original 17th century church are at the south-west corner of the castle.
Visitors to Highclere Castle
can luxuriate in the sumptuously decorated rooms open to the public, which
include the Saloon, the State Dining Room, the Library, the Music Room, the
Drawing Room and the Smoking Room. Some
of the bedrooms can also be viewed, reachable via the suitably impressive oak
staircase, as can the kitchens, cellars and so on in the "downstairs"
part of the household. The glorious
grounds of the Castle feature the Monks' Garden, whose name is a nod to the
Bishops of Winchester, and such delightfully named areas as the Secret Garden
and the Wood of Goodwill. The extensive
parkland includes a number of classically inspired follies, as well as remains
of ancient Iron Age and Bronze Age hill forts and tumuli.
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Highclere Castle (April 2011). Photo by Richard Munckton, via Wikimedia Commons.
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Probably the most notable episode in the
history of the Carnarvon family occurred in 1922, when the 5th Earl of
Carnarvon, along with the archaeologist Howard Carter, discovered the tomb of
Tutankhamun. The find was the pinnacle
of 16 years spent excavating at several key archeological sites in Egypt. Sadly, the Earl died the year after the
incredible find, but his legacy was an extraordinary collection of antiquities,
most of which were sold to the Metropolitan Museum of New York, although a few
less significant items remained at Highclere.
Now these and some of the other items have been brought together for an
exhibition at Highclere which, as well as displaying some of the fruits of
Carnarvon's time in Egypt, tells the story of the quest by Lord Carnarvon and
Howard Carter which led up to the discovery of the tomb. The fascinating artefacts on display include
a noble woman's coffin from 3,500 years
ago.
There is one note to add on Carnarvon's
death. One of the best known legends
surrounding the antiquities unearthed in Egypt is that of Tutankhamun's
curse. As it happens, it was less than
two weeks after the official opening of the burial chamber that Lord Carnarvon
was bitten by a mosquito, and the bite became infected. The Lord fell ill with pneumonia, from which
he died, aged just 57. But that's not
all: allegedly, the lights went out in Cairo
at the moment of his death, while back home his dog started howling and died at
the same moment. Meanwhile, back in the
present, it has been reported that several of the cast members of Downton Abbey
had accidents during the filming, resulting in two broken wrists and a foot impaled
by a dropped knife. Perhaps the Curse of
Tutankhamun lives on...
The house and grounds are open to the
public at peak times of the year and on certain other dates for special
events. Downton Abbey returns to our TV screens later this year.
Highclere Castle is in the far north of Hampshire, near Newbury. See here for a map.
