CRACKING THE CODES: THE IMITATION GAME/BUCKINGHAMSHIRE/SHERBORNE/LONDON

 

Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire started out as a mansion in 1711, later to be pulled down.  The house which was subsequently built on the site was bought by MI6 in 1938 for use by intelligence personnel in the event of war, which turned out to be a wise investment as the centre proved to be a key factor in the country’s victory over Germany in World War Two.  During the War a young Cambridge graduate, Alan Turing, arrived at Bletchley Park and was put in charge of Hut 8, which dealt with German naval cryptanalysis.  While there, he became engaged to Joan Clarke, a fellow cryptanalyst, but they never married as Turing later came out as a homosexual. 

Bletchley Park Mansion. Photo by DeFacto, via Wikimedia Commons.

This story is played out in the film The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing and Keira Knightley as Joan, and Bletchley Park appears as itself in the interior shots.  For the exteriors Joyce Grove in Nettlebed, Oxfordshire, was used in the filming.   For the town of Bletchley itself, scenes were shot in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, where one of the buildings stood in as Joan’s lodgings.  The town was also used as the scene of a meeting with a possible Soviet spy, and a pillar box was erected opposite 68 Church Street for the scene. 

Church Street, Chesham - geograph.org.uk - 111011. Photo by Cathy Cox, via Wikimedia Commons.

During the film there are flashbacks to Turing’s schooldays, much of which were spent at Sherborne School.  The real-life school in this attractive small Dorset town was used for the school scenes in the film, with its lovely honey-hued stone buildings and arched cloisters much in evidence.

Naturally, any film about the intelligence services will have scenes shot in London.  The evacuation scenes were filmed at King’s Cross Station, while the interior of the MI6 Headquarters was filmed in the Lethaby Building on Southampton Row, seen in the scene where Joan turns up as the only female answering an advertisement for crossword solvers.  In one scene, Turing is seen cycling through a bombed out part of the city; heaps of rubble were dumped in Carey Street, Chancery Lane, for the filming of the scene.  In another throwback to the Blitz, the disused Aldwych Tube Station serves as an underground refuge for the populace. 

Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, has been turned into a museum commemorating its time as a code-breaking centre.  Guided tours are available, and the museum is open 6 days a week.  Joyce Grove, a country house built in the Jacobean style, is owned by the Sue Ryder charity.  Sherborne is a pleasant small town in north west Dorset, with its Abbey, founded in 705, as the focal point of the town.  Chesham is a market town 11 miles south east from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire.

Sherborn Abbey.

Map of Bletchley Park and surrounding area.

Map of Sherborne. 

A TALE OF LOSS IN NORTHERN IRELAND: PHILOMENA/COUNTY DOWN

Philomena, starring Judy Dench and Steve Coogan, is a film based on the true story of a woman from Northern Ireland called Philomena Lee (Dench) who had a son out of wedlock, which led to her being sent to a convent.  The son was taken away from her and ended up in America.  The film centres on Philomena’s search for her son with the help of TV presenter Martin Sixsmith (Coogan). 

A large proportion of the film is set in America, where Philomena and Martin go in search of the lost son, but in the early scenes we are treated to the sight of the Mourne Mountains and surrounding area.  In the scene where Martin picks up Philomena to take her to the convent to quiz the nuns about her son, we see a sign saying ‘Birr’.  There is a town called Birr in County Offaly, Republic of Ireland, but the scene was actually filmed in Rostrevor on Carlingford Lough, close to the Mourne Mountains, and Philomena is seen waiting opposite the Killowen Inn on Bridge Street.

Rostrevor (elevated view) - geograph.org.uk - 278010. Photo by Albert Bridge, via Wikimedia Commons

Further north in the county, in Killyleagh, the Dufferin Arms pub was used in the scene where Philomena and Martin discover that there was a fire which destroyed the convent’s records, while suspiciously leaving the convent itself intact.  The landlord of the pub was so chuffed at his hostelry being chosen for the scene that a party was held to celebrate the premiere of the film.  

Killyleagh harbour (1) - geograph.org.uk - 296250. Photo by Albert Bridge, via Wikimedia Commons

Fans of the film who head to Northern Ireland in search of filming locations should not waste their time looking for the real-life version of Roscrea Convent, where Philomena had to give up her son.  The building used to depict the convent was actually Harefield House in Harefield near Uxbridge, Greater London, conveniently located close to Pinewood Studios.  In the film there is a smaller red brick building visible to the right of the front of the convent.  This is in another place altogether, on the estate of Shirburn Castle near Thame, Oxfordshire, and was added in with the help of computer graphics technology.  The cemetery scene was also filmed on the estate.  Note that neither of these properties are open to the public.



The Mountains of Mourne are a constant presence overlooking the coastal areas between Newcastle, County Down, and points south, as well as the county’s inland areas.  They include the  highest mountains in Northern Ireland, most notably the mighty Slieve Donard.  Rostrevor lies at the southern entrance to the mountains and is bordered by the Rostrevor Forest, which has many attractive paths for walkers to explore.  The area is also rich in historical and folkloric remains.  Killyleagh lies on the western side of Strangford Loch.  One of its most attractive features is its harbour lined with houses of different colours.   The harbour was the recipient of coal imports from England until the 1980s.

Map of County Down.

BEAUTY IN A TIME OF COLD WAR: SUMMER OF ROCKETS/BENINGTON LORDSHIP

As was the case with its predecessor, Close To The Enemy, the latest Stephen Poliakoff TV drama, Summer Of Rockets, has come up trumps once again with its visual beauty and period touches.  Set in the Cold War period, in 1958, at a time when fears of a nuclear conflict were growing among the populace – hence the title – the focal point of the story is Russian émigré Samuel Petrukhin (Toby Stephens) who invents a clever tracking device and who is reluctantly sucked into the world of espionage, necessitating repeated visits to the beautiful home of a politician and his wife, Richard and Kathleen Shaw (Linus Roache and Keeley Hawes).  Another facet of the story is the desperate search by Kathleen for her son who has disappeared.



The Shaws hold many posh get-togethers at their home, and this is where much of the action takes place in the series.  The real-life property where these scenes were filmed is the curiously named Benington Lordship, a few kilometres east of Stevenage in Hertfordshire, a private family home which opens up its gardens to the public at certain times of the year, for instance in February for the snowdrops.  The gardens were created above an ancient fortified site dating from Saxon times.  The gatehouse seen in many of the scenes is a neo-norman folly completed in 1838.  The house itself was a manor house, originally started around 1700.  The west wing was added in 1905 by the present owners’ ancestors.

Benington Lordship 001 (8249305273).  Photo by Ozzy Delaney, via Wikimedia Commons.

The property has been used in a number of other productions, such as the BBC Just William production and series 1 and 2 of the Channel 4 drama Humans.  

Another location frequently seen in Summer Of Rockets is the airfield where the tracking device is put to the test.  This was filmed at the former RAF base Upper Heyford in Oxfordshire, an appropriate choice, having been used as a base for US forces based in Britain during the Cold War.

Benington Lordship-5279415003. Photo by Rictor Norton and David Allen, via Wikimedia Commons.

Map of Benington Lordship and surrounding area.

THE REAL HOWARDS END: PEPPARD COTTAGE, OXFORDSHIRE

The Merchant Ivory classic Howards End, based on the novel of the same name by E M Forster, is a story set in the early 1900s exploring relationships spanning three classes: the Wilcox family (headed by Anthony Hopkins as wealthy businessman Henry Wilcox), the bourgeois and philanthropic Schlegels (with Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Schlegel sisters), and the working class Basts. The film takes in numerous UK locations, most notably in Oxfordshire and London, with a bit of Italy thrown in.

Howards End, a property which forms a focal point in the plot of the film, is a delightful red-brick country house clad in wisteria and surrounded by flower-strewn woodlands. The real-life house is called Peppard Cottage, a 14th-century country house overlooking Peppard Commond in Rotherfield Peppard, near the pretty riverside village of Sonning, between Reading and Henley-on-Thames. It was once owned by Lady Ottoline Morrell, who used to entertain members of the Bloomsbury group there. The cottage was still privately owned at the time of filming and after, but that did not stop fans of the film flocking to take pictures of it. In 2017 it was reported that the property was up for sale, for a cool £3.95 million. Howards End is not the only screen appearance by Peppard Cottage: it was also seen in Poirot, Inspector Morse and Midsomer Murders.

"Howards End" - geograph.org.uk - 558062. Photo by Graham Horn, via Wikimedia Commons

Howards End is in the fictional village of Hilton, and some of the village scenes were filmed in nearby Dorchester-on-Thames, but others were filmed a long way away in Worcestershire. One such featured Bewdley Station, one of the stops on the charming heritage railway line known as the Severn Valley Railway. Prunella Scales as Aunt Juley is seen in front of the City of Truro locomotive at the station. The George Tavern of the film is actually in the village of Upper Arley, between Bewdley and Bridgnorth.

Bewdley Station

Map of Oxfordshire

BETJEMAN'S VISITS TO A PIECE OF EXOTICA IN OXFORDSHIRE: SEZINCOTE

When John Betjeman was a student at Oxford University he used to visit the family home of his friend John Dugdale. The home in question, nestled in the rural idyll of the East Cotswolds, was Sezincote, a riot of Indian-inspired exotica commissioned by Charles, the brother of Colonel John Cockerell, grandson of the famous diarist Samuel Pepys, who had amassed a fortune at the East India Company. The brief Charles Cockerell set his architect brother Samuel was for a grand house in the Rajasthan Mogul style. The house must have made an impression on the Prince Regent, who visited in 1807, as he was inspired to change his plans for the Royal Pavilion in Brighton following his time there.

As for Betjeman, the house and grounds provided the inspiration for a poem forming part of the Summoned By Bells collection, covering his early life from childhood to student years. Describing his visits to the house for Sunday lunches, he waxes lyrical about the Cotswold lanes being “heavy with hawthorn scent”, while the house itself is “Indian without and coolest Greek within”. In the grounds, the lake “was made to seem a mighty river-reach”, and included “The bridge, the waterfall, the Temple Pool”. Betjeman’s friends parents were Colonel Dugdale, whose “eyes looked out towards the hills”, and Mrs Dugdale “In trailing and Edwardian-looking dress”. He concludes by declaring that “Sezincote became a second home”. Sezincote is open to visitors with the house open in the afternoon from May to September inclusive on Thursdays, Fridays and Bank Holiday Mondays, while the garden is open from January to November.

Map of the area.

Sezincote House - geograph.org.uk - 1577252. Photo by Cameraman, via Wikimedia Commons.

THE REAL HOME OF MIDSOMER MURDERS: THAMES AND CHILTERNS

The area to the east of Oxford, especially the River Thames and the Chilterns, is characterised by quaint towns and villages with genteel red brick buildings, village greens, pretty pubs, cricket and horseriding. In short, not the sort of place one would expect to be a hotbed of murder and mayhem. However, in the TV world this is the county of Midsomer, home of the Midsomer Murders series, and there have been enough murders over the years for the series to clock up a staggering 20 seasons since its launch in 1997. The poor soul charged with solving all these murders is Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, formerly played by John Nettles, who has more recently been replaced by Neil Dudgeon.

The fictional village at the heart of all this bloodshed is Causton. As is often the case, more than one real life location has been used for the filming of the Causton scenes. The three main locations are Wallingford, Thame and Henley-on-Thames, all of them market towns in South Oxfordshire.

In the Thameside town of Wallingford, the market square features in the series and the Corn Exchange plays the role of Causton Theatre. Inspector Barnaby is often seen driving across the bridge which spans the River Thames. The Midsomer Worthy Choir of the series has singers from the local choir in Wallingford. Visitors to the town who are fans of the series should head to the museum, which has displays about the filming in the town, along with scripts and some of the props.

Wallingford Town Hall. Photo by Tom Bastin, via Wikimedia Commons

The town of Thame (named after the River Thame rather than the more famous Thames) has provided a number of locations for the series, for example the former tourist office, which is depicted as Causton’s library, the Town Hall as Causton Town Hall in Shot At Dawn (season 11) and others, the Market House, Rumsey’s Chocolaterie as Madrigal's Camera Shop in Picture of Innocence (season 10) and three of its inns, The Swan, The Black Horse and The Spread Eagle. Thame Museum was used in Secrets and Spies (season 12).  Last year the town started offering walking tours of the locations used in the series.

Upper High Street, Thame, with the Swan Hotel - geograph-4126457-by-Stefan-Czapski, via Wikimedia Commons

In Henley-on-Thames, the Town Hall serves as Causton’s court house in Last Year’s Model (season 9) and The Argyll pub features in the same episode. The butcher’s shop Gabriel Machin is seen in The Magician’s Nephew (season 11), playing Anton Thorneycrofts butcher’s. Henley is best known for its annual Royal Regatta, and this fact is put to good use in Dead in the Water (season 8), which features the Midsomer Regatta. One of the town’s restaurants, CAU (formerly La Bodega at the time of filming), is seen in Down Among the Dead Men (season 9), with Inspector Barnaby buying drinks in the garden of the establishment, renamed Cafe Vinters. No Oxfordshire market town would be complete without a ramshackle antiques shop, and in Henley it is Tudor House Antiques which was chosen as a location in A Sacred Trust (season 14).

Hart Street, Henley-on-Thames - geograph.org.uk - 526487. Photo by Colin Smith, via Wikimedia Commons

This part of the country is full of pretty villages which were used in the series, too many to mention in full. Moulsford, near Wallingford, features in Dead in the Water. Warborough, set back a bit from the river, is the home of the The Six Bells, where Barnaby and his sidekick Sergeant Troy are sometimes seen having a pint while discussing the latest case. The exterior of the pub has been renamed several times for different episodes, as The Quill Inn, The Black Swan and The Luck in the World. Further afield, just outside Maindenhead, the village of Holyport is the focal point of Harvest of Souls (season 18), its picturesque pub The George on the Green on the village green being renamed The Black Dog for the filming.

The Six Bells, Warborough - geograph.org.uk - 1392017. Photo by Jonathan Billinger, via Wikimedia Commons

For a comprehensive compendium of information on the series and the locations used, head over to the Visit Midsomer website.

BOND'S BRITAIN: SPECTRE

Predictably, the latest Christmas and New Year break was punctuated by a number of James Bond films on the telly, and on New Year’s Day it was the turn of Spectre, the 2015 production and the fourth to feature Daniel Craig as James Bond.  As always with the Bond films, the locations are an exotic mix, ranging from Mexico to Rome to Austria, to Morocco, but in between there are glimpses of some of London’s best known landmarks.

The riverside headquarters of MI6 makes an early appearance, looking rather sorry for itself following a terrorist attack in the previous Bond film, Skyfall.  The building finally disappears in a cloud of smoke in an explosion later in the film.  The new Centre for National Security which has been built opposite the ruins of the former MI6 building is portrayed by Riverwalk House on Millbank, which has been transformed into swanky apartments.  As for the interior scene featuring a distinctive spiral staircase, this was filmed in the City Hall building, also known as the headquarters of the Mayor of London.  Early in the film, Bond and M are in a car in the environs of a rather imposing crescent-shaped building.  This is Admiralty Arch, commissioned by the British Government in the reign of Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria.  The environs of Trafalgar Square also feature in this sequence, which was filmed in May 2015.  Another famous London landmark seen in an aerial shot is the London Eye big wheel.

Admiralty Arch - geograph.org.uk - 911892. Photo by Richard Croft, via Wikimedia Commons

The River Thames features heavily in some parts of the film, with one scene involving Bond and the MI6 Chief of Staff roaring along the river in a speedboat, a scene filmed in December 2014.  They also spend some time on the Regent’s Canal near Camden Lock, home to the famous market.  During a scene involving a helicopter and car chase, Westminster and the Houses of Parliament feature, with the helicopter crashing on Westminster Bridge.  During the filming, smoke was seen billowing from the area, which would no doubt have caused alarm if it were filmed nowadays following the terror attack which took place there last year.  Lambeth Bridge, Hungerford Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge also get a look-in during the boat and helicopter chase scene.

Big Ben, Westminster Bridge Road, Westminster, London - panoramio. Photo by ktanaka, via Wikimedia Commons

The oldest restaurant in London is Rules in Covent Garden, established in 1798 by Thomas Rule.  In Spectre M, Q and Miss Moneypenny are seen meeting in a dining room, a scene which was filmed in Rules.  Also in Covent Garden, the Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Street provides the interior shots for the corridors of the British Intelligence Headquarters.

In February 2015 the filming moved to Blenheim Palace, a huge stately pile and estate in Woodstock to the north of Oxford, best known as the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill, which has been used countless times in film and TV productions.  The palace provides a suitably grand backdrop for Bond’s Aston Martin, which is involved in yet another high speed chase starting from the building, which is meant to be the fictional Palazzo Cadenza in Rome. 

Blenheim Palace (6092890723). Photo by Simon Q, via Wikimedia Commons

Map of Central London.

OF MORSE AND MURDERS: OXFORD

 

Inspector Morse was a highly successful TV series based on the Chief Inspector Morse novels of Colin Dexter and set in and around Oxford.  The series, which ran from 1987 to 2000, gained international acclaim for its convoluted story lines and attractive locations, and international broacasting rights for the series were sold to 200 countries, making it the most exported TV series in the history of British television.  Viewers worldwide despaired at the behaviour of the irascible Inspector Morse, played by the late actor John Thaw, with his habit of taking every opportunity for a drink during the course of his investigations, his series of thwarted love affairs and his dismissive treatment of those around him, not least his sidekick the long-suffering Lewis, played by Kevin Whately.  

Inspector Morse was a real ale fanatic, so many scenes in the series were filmed in Oxford's historic pubs.  The Bear Inn featured in the "Death Is Now My Neighbour" episode in which Morse visits the pub for a beer during the course of a murder enquiry.  In "The Dead of Jericho", Morse has a drink with a fellow choir member - one of his many doomed romances - in the White Horse, Broad Street, after choir practice.  The Turf Tavern, an ancient inn nestled among a labyrinth of narrow lanes, was used in a number of Morse episodes, for example "The Daughters of Cain".   The Eagle And Child (currently closed) – a favourite haunt of J. R. Tolkien - was visited regularly by Colin Dexter and also featured in the series.

The Eagle and Child (Oxford). Photo by manray3, via Wikimedia Commons.

Apart from beer, another of Morse's passions is classical music, particularly opera, and as with the ale, this was an enthusiasm well catered for in Oxford.  He is often to be found attending concerts in the city.  In "Twilight Of The Gods", one of Morse's opera idols, the mezzo-soprano Gwladys Probert, is shot by a sniper.  Earlier in the episode she is seen giving a master-class at the Holywell Music Room.  The shooting takes place as a procession is making its way to the Sheldonian Theatre.  This handsome building, started in 1664, is renowned both for its distinctive rounded exterior, topped by an eight-sided cupola, and for its beautiful galleried interior.

Sheldonian Theatre (5649724219). Photo by Tony Hisgett, via Wikimedia Commons.

Naturally for a city such as Oxford, many of the Morse episodes had an academic flavour to them, with the colleges of the University playing a pivotal role.  In "The Last Enemy", the real identity of the fictional college called Beaumont College was Corpus Christi College.  Morse visits his old friend Sir Alexander Reece at the college, and Reece asks him to investigate the disappearance of the Deputy Master.   In "The Infernal Serpent" senior fellow of Beaufort College Dr Julian Dear is attacked and dies of a heart attack.  His funeral, which supposedly takes place at Beaufort College, was actually filmed in the chapel of University College and in Oriel College.  Oriel College was used in several other episodes, including "Deadly Slumber", "Twilight Of The Gods" and "Death Is Now My Neighbour".  Lonsdale College is another fictional college which features in a number of Morse episodes.  Brasenose College is the real-life college which was used to depict Lonsdale, while New College was used for the fictional St Saviour's.

UK-2014-Oxford-Corpus Christi College 02. Photo by Godot13, via Wikimedia Commons.

Continuing the learned theme, several of Oxford's museums and gardens have featured in the Morse series.  The title of "The Wolvercote Tongue" refers to a priceless piece of medieval jewellery belonging to a visiting tourist which vanishes.  An expert on the piece from the Ashmolean Museum, to which the tourist was going to donate the item, is found dead.  In "The Daughters Of Cain" a knife-wielding murderer steals his weapon from Pitt Rivers Museum.  The marksman who shoots Gwladys Probert in "Twilight Of The Gods" does the evil deed from a vantage point in the Bodleian Library, the main research library of the University of Oxford, and one of the oldest libraries in Europe.  The adjoining Radcliffe Camera, a beautiful circular building started in 1737, often appears in the background during Morse's strolls through the city, for example in "The Last Enemy" when he is seen walking past it with Lewis.  The Botanic Gardens, founded in 1621 under the auspices of the University, features in "The Settling Of The Sun".

Oxford - Bodleian Library - Radcliffe Camera - tree. Photo by Remi Mathis, via Wikimedia Commons.

The beauty of the architecture in central Oxford as well as the bucolic countryside surrounding the city has made it one of south-east England's most used locations in film and TV productions.  Films made in the city include Shadowlands, a film about C. S. Lewis, played by Anthony Hopkins, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, featuring the Bodleian Library, X-Men: First Class, which includes scenes shot around the University buildings, and the 2006 film The History Boys.  On the small screen, the series Lewis, a spin-off from the Inspector Morse series, as well as another about the young Morse called Endeavour, were filmed in and around the city.

Oxford is a highly cosmopolitan city, where the mix of academic types and the more working class element has led to the use of the phrase “town and gown”.  This mixed population had led to a highly diverse range of attractions and entertainment, with something for everyone.  The city centre is a jumble of venerable old colleges, chapels, churches and museums, many open to visitors, plus a wide variety of restaurants and pubs.  Not surprisingly, the city offers Morse-themed tours of the city.  Or you could just go it alone and go on a Morse-themed pub crawl!

Map of the city.

PUBS ON PAGE AND SCREEN

In a country where the pub forms such an important part of everyday life, it is no surprise to learn that there are a host of such establishments with film, TV and literary associations.  With Spring around the corner, why not get out and discover some of them.  The following is just a selection; if you know of any others, why not share them via the comments. 

Askrigg, North Yorkshire: The Kings Arms

In 1978 the popular drama All Creatures Great and Small arrived on our TV screens, set in 1940s Yorkshire, based on the books by real-life vet James Herriot, and featuring a trio of vets sharing a practice in a picturesque Yorkshire Dales village.  A number of different Dales locations were used for the filming, but the pub frequented by the vets, The Drovers Arms in Darrowby in the series, was actually the Kings Arms in the lovely village of Askrigg.  There are photographs inside the pub taken during the filming of the series.  For those who want to immerse themselves overnight in the Herriot experience, the pub does not offer accommodation, however Skeldale House just down the road, which acted as the frontage of the vets practice in the series, is a bed and breakfast.

Banff, Aberdeenshire: The Ship Inn

The heartwarming 1983 film Local Hero, about a small Scottish community called Ferness which was tempted by oil riches, was largely filmed in the village of Pennan in Aberdeenshire.  However, the interior of the local pub frequented by villagers and American visitors alike, called the Macaskill Arms in the film, was filmed in The Ship Inn in Banff, also in Aberdeenshire.  The exterior shots were filmed in Pennan itself, with ordinary buildings providing the basis for the facade.  Another pub, the Lochailort Hotel far away in Morar (currently closed), was also used for some of the interior scenes.  All this has not prevented Pennan’s real-life local, the Pennan Inn, from cashing in on the film’s fame.  The inn, which is located opposite the red phone box which played a pivotal role in the story, has a plaque on the wall commemorating the film.    

Bolventor, Cornwall: Jamaica Inn

Jamaica Inn is Daphne du Maurier’s story of a young woman who, following her mother’s death, is forced to go and live with her aunt and drunken uncle in the creepy Jamaica Inn, perched on the wild, windswept moorlands of Cornwall’s interior.  The story was recently serialised for television, attracting widespread derision for the mumbling Cornish accents issuing forth from the actors’ mouths.  The inn of the title actually exists in real life; it used to stand right next to the A30, but improvements to the main artery whisking tourists into Cornwall left it slightly adrift, necessitating a turnoff from the road – just follow the brown tourist sign.  Overnight accommodation is available at the inn – not for the fainthearted, since it has been the scene of many paranormal activities over the years, not surprisingly given the inn’s past as a smugglers’ haunt, which no doubt led to a number of murders.  The main resident ghost is said to be that of a traveller who stepped outside in the middle of his pint and was found dead on the moor the next day.  Footsteps heard along the passage leading to the bar are believed to be that of the ill-fated visitor returning to finish his ale.

Jamaica Inn - geograph.org.uk - 462626.  Photo by Kenneth Allen, via Wikimedia Commons.

Bristol: The Hole In The Wall

Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stephenson’s Treasure Island, surely the ultimate stereotype of the pirate-with-a-West-Country-accent, was the landlord of The Spyglass Inn in the novel.  The story’s narrator, Jim Hawkins, had orders to meet him there and when he arrived he realised with horror that the pub landlord had only one leg.  There are many pubs claiming to be the inspiration for The Spyglass Inn, but the one most closely matching the description is The Hole In The Wall in Bristol, not least because it has a spy-hole feature which was used to keep a look-out for the press gang, and it occupies a quayside position in line with the fictional pub.  Centrally located near Queen Square and the Arnolfini Gallery, the real-life pub continues to serve up food and drink to hungry and thirsty Bristolians and visitors.

Denton, Kent: The Jackdaw Inn

The wartime classic The Battle of Britain, released in 1969, is full of wonderful vintage scenes depicting the lifestyles of wartime Britain.  One of them features a pub where Squadron Leader Colin Harvey (Christopher Plummer) meets his screen wife (Susannah York).  The scene was filmed in Kent in The Jackdaw Inn , Denton.  Wartime memories live on in the pub with lots of wartime RAF memorabilia and vintage posters such as the one declaring “Don’t Help the Enemy! Careless Talk May Give Away Vital Secrets”, a poster which can be seen in the background in the film.   The pub used to be called The Red Lion, but it was renamed in 1962 because the Whitbread brewery felt there were too many pubs in the area with the same name.

Goathland: The Goathland Hotel

Heartbeat is a British TV series set in the 1960s in North Yorkshire, starring Nick Berry as PC Nick Rowan, which was shown between 1991 and 2009.  The filming of the series was centred around the village of Goathland,which lies on the Whitby to Pickering North Yorkshire Moors Railway line.  The local pub which featured in the story was the Aidensfield Arms, which was depicted by the Goathland Hotel.  The filming entailed the rebuilding of the interior of the bar as well as using the exterior for outside shots.

The Goathland Hotel (Aidensfield Arms) - geograph.org.uk - 685503.  Photo by Nicholas Mutton, via Wikimedia Commons.

London: The Grapes

Located at 76 Narrow Street, Limehouse, this inn was originally The Bunch of Grapes, built in 1583.  Its main literary claim to fame is that it was frequented by Charles Dickens.  In fact the opening sentences of Our Mutual Friend are believed to refer to it, describing it as “a tavern of dropsical appearance” in a “state of hale infirmity”.  Dickens went on to describe the inn’s waterside location as akin to “a faint-hearted diver, who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all”.  The pub has a venerable history, particularly from the Elizabethan era, when Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on his third voyage to the New World from the river just below.  The present-day pub, now owned by the actor Sir Ian McKellen, has a small balcony overlooking the river, and Dickens fans will find a complete set of his works in the back parlour.

Newcastle Upon Tyne: The Victoria Comet

The premises now occupied by the Victoria Comet in Newcastle played a starring role in the 1972 Geordie gangster classic Get Carter starring Michael Caine, so much so that it is commonly referred to as the ‘Get Carter pub’.  When the venue started out as a pub in the 1800s, it was actually two pubs, The Victoria and The Comet, which later became a hotel known as The Victoria and Comet.  After a spell as a branch of O’Neills, it was revamped and renamed The Victoria Comet in a nod to its past, with posters depicting scenes from the film on the walls.  In the film the Caine character Jack Carter, following his arrival by train at the city’s main station, fetches up at the pub, where a young Alun Armstrong is serving behind the bar.  Allegedly some of the pub regulars were given roles as extras in the film and they took to their parts a bit too enthusiastically, including the imbibing of real beer, bringing them to various states of inebriation.  

New Quay: The Black Lion

High up above the harbour of this charming small resort on the coast of Ceredigion, The Black Lion boasts lovely views from its large garden.  In the mid-1940s the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas moved into Majoda, a house in an idyllic setting on the clifftop just outside the town.  It is a well-known fact that drinking was one of Thomas’ favourite pursuits, and The Black Lion was his favourite pub in New Quay.  The Dylan Restaurant in the basement has a large amount of Dylan Thomas memorabilia displayed on the walls.  Across the road from the pub is Gomer House, the former home of Captain Tom Polly, who was the inspiration for Captain Cat, the blind sea captain in Under Milk Wood.

Oxford: The Eagle and Child

Set among the venerable college buildings of Oxford University, the Eagle and Child was once a favourite haunt of J. R. R. Tolkien of The Hobbit fame.  He used to visit the pub as part of a group of writers called the Inklings, which also included C. S. Lewis.   Tolkien and Lewis were both at the English Faculty at the University.  Built in the mid-1600s, the pub’s name is said to have come from the crest of the Earl of Derby, which has an image of a baby in an eagle’s nest.  The pub recalls its literary past with photos on the wall and a plaque commemorating the Inklings.  (Postscript: The Eagle and Child is currently closed, but is expected to reopen in a new guise at some point.)

Slad, Gloucestershire: The Woolpack

With a beer terrace overlooking a beautiful valley in the southern Cotswolds, the interior of the Woolpack Inn in Slad looks as though it has never changed over the years, and certainly not since the times when local literary celebrity the late Laurie Lee used to prop up the bar here.  Slad was Lee’s home village, and his most famous work Cider With Rosie delightfully conjures up what comes across as an idyllic childhood.  After he married his wife Kathy, the couple made their home in a house just across the road.  The pub, which gets a mention in Cider With Rosie, has pictures of Laurie Lee on the walls, and there is a beer produced by the local Uley brewery named after him.  Fans of the writer who visit the pub for a pint can raise a glass to him while glancing up the road to the Church of Holy Trinity, where he is buried in the graveyard.

The Woolpack, Slad.

Whitstable: The Old Neptune

Perched precariously on Whitstable’s shingle beach, the Old Neptune – or Neppy as it is affectionately called by the locals – is in prime position for admiring the town’s legendary sunsets.  In 2006 Peter O’Toole, in a rather frail state from a broken hip, starred in the film Venus as a veteran actor, and some of the filming took place in the Neppy.  O’Toole was  nominated for an Oscar for the role, but he was beaten to it by Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.  The pub was taken over for the whole day for filming, but the crew finished early and O’Toole bought the entire pub a round of drinks before leaving. 

The Old Neptune, Whitstable.

                                

TUDORMANIA ON THE TELLY: WOLF HALL

The television adaptation of Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and its sequel Bring Up The Bodies and starring Damien Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as Anne Boleyn, very nearly didn't get made in England.  The makers of the programme, which covers the Anne Boleyn phase of Henry's love life and the pivotal role of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) as Henry's fixer, originally wanted to film in Belgium where there were tax breaks available, but they changed their minds, deciding that Belgium somehow just didn't look right.  Britain's tourism officials must have been very glad of this change of heart, because the sumptuous historic houses and gardens used in the series, many of them owned by the National Trust, provide the best possible showcase for the country's history and heritage.  The locations are spread across a range of counties, mainly in Southern England.

First off Somerset, where the crew made use of Barrington Court (National Trust), a 16th century Tudor manor house near Ilminster.  The house was restored in the 1920s and was used for evacuees during World War II.  There are no collections or furniture in the interior, so it is up to the visitor to visualise how the rooms would have looked during Tudor times.  The gardens were designed by Gertrude Jekyll.  For Wolf Hall the house portrayed York Place, the home of Cardinal Wolsey (Jonathan Pryce), with scenes set in the inner and outer privy chambers, while the gardens doubled as Windsor Great Park.  On to Montacute House (National Trust) near Yeovil, an Elizabethan mansion completed in 1601 and built from local 'ham' stone.  A highlight is the Long Gallery (171 feet long) with over 60 Tudor and Elizabethan portraits.  The house was given a majestic air by the architects courtesy of the towering windows.  In Wolf Hall Montacute was used for Greenwich Palace, with the Long Gallery stripped bare for the filming.  The surrounding parkland was used for the jousting scenes.  Further west, near Wellington, is the 14th century Cothay Manor, which was used in the series as the home of Thomas More.

Barringtoncourt. Photo by Andrew Longton, via Wikimedia Commons.

Heading northeast to Wiltshire we come to Great Chalfield Manor (National Trust) near Melksham.  This moated 15th century manor was built by Thomas Tropenell, who graced it with oriel windows and carvings of griffons and monkeys on the roof tops.  The property is surrounded by charming gardens.  For Wolf Hall the house served as Austin Friars, the London home of Thomas Cromwell.  For anyone wanting to relive the Wolf Hall experience there is bed and breakfast accommodation available at the property.  Also in Wiltshire is Lacock Abbey (National Trust), a former nunnery turned country house with various architectural styles.  As well as Lacock Abbey itself, visitors can stroll around the adjacent Lacock Village, with quaint streets, shops, cafes and pubs.  The pioneering photographer William Henry Fox Talbot once lived here, and there is a museum devoted to him.  In the series, Lacock Abbey was used to depict Wolf Hall itself, with outdoor scenes shot in the surrounding woodland.  Wolf Hall fans may have experienced a feeling of deja vu at the sight of this property, as it has been used for filming before, most notably in the Harry Potter films and the Cranford TV series.

Lacock Abbey cloister. Photo by John Chapman, via Wikimedia Commons.

To the north of Wiltshire is Gloucestershire with its county town of Gloucester, where the cathedral, built between 1089 and 1499, was used as the Court of Henry VIII.  During the filming the locals were treated to the sight of members of the cast in full Tudor regalia queuing up at a fish and chip van.  To the south west, near the mouth of the River Severn, is the small town of Berkeley and its castle, which has been the home of the Berkeley family for 850 years, making it the oldest building in the country still inhabited by the family who built it.  The castle, whose origins date back to the 11th century, is built from a warm-hued pink stone, with battlements towering 60 feet above the Great Lawn.  It was one of the so-called 'March Castles' built to keep out the Welsh.  The makers of the series made use of the Bailey Gates and Inner Bailey, The Great Hall, kitchens, buttery and The Long Drawing Room.  Further north in the county in the depths of the Cotswolds is Stanway House, a Jacobean manor house known for its single-jet fountain, the highest gravity fountain in the world.  As it happens Thomas Cromwell had close links to this part of the country, and witnessed the destruction of the nearby Hailes Abbey.

Berkeley Castle - geograph.org.uk - 1440400. Photo by Philip Halling, via Wikimedia Commons.

Zooming across to the south-east corner of the country, there are two locations in Kent which featured in the series.  Penshurst Place is a 14th century hunting lodge near Tonbridge which once belonged to Henry VIII.  It was where Henry courted Anne Boleyn, so that the scenes shot in The Long Gallery were filmed in the very place that the action between the two lovers took place 500 years ago.  Candles were used for the filming, adding an extra air of authenticity, although some viewers complained about the darkness of the scenes on the telly.  Other parts of the property used for filming include the Queen Elizabeth Room, Baron's Hall, The Tapestry Room, The Solar and The Crypt, with scenes depicting York Place and Whitehall.  Two other historical films were made here: The Other Boleyn Girl and Anne of the Thousand Days.  Down on the coast, Dover Castle (English Heritage) with its 83-foot Great Tower played the Tower of London - not for the first time, as it has been used in a number of other productions for the same purpose. The grisly execution scene at the end of the series was shot here.  The castle occupies the site of an Iron Age hillfort which was used by William the Conqueror for the construction of an earthwork and timber-stockaded castle.  The stone castle was begun in the 1180s by Henry II.

These are the main locations used in the series, but there are a number of others: Bristol and Winchester Cathedrals, Broughton Castle and Chastleton House (National Trust) in Oxfordshire, the Tithe Barn (English Heritage) in Bradford on Avon, Raglan Castle (Cadw) in Monmouthshire and the beguiling fairytale Castell Coch (Cadw) to the north of Cardiff in Wales.