THE DA VINCI CODE: THE LINCOLNSHIRE CONNECTION

The Da Vinci Code, based on the novel by Dan Brown and starring Tom Hanks as Professor Robert Langdon, divides its time between France and the UK, with a little bit of Malta thrown in.  The UK scenes are divided between England and Scotland, with the county of Lincolnshire providing some of the key moments.  Hanks and his co-stars Sir Ian McKellen and Audrey Tautou all stayed in Lincoln during the shoot, which took place in 2005.  I once visited Lincoln with my husband, where we went on an excellent ghost tour.  According to the tour guide Tom Hanks came on the same tour while there, which must have provided a suitably creepy real-life diversion from the events of the film.

Lincoln Cathedral was chosen as a stand-in for Westminster Abbey in the film, as the real Westminster Abbey denied permission to film on religious grounds.  The production team went to the trouble of creating a model of the tomb of Isaac Newton, who happens to hail from nearby Grantham, to replicate the real one in London.  Incidentally, the cathedral was also used to portray Westminster Abbey in the film The Young Victoria.  The cathedral gained some much needed extra revenue as a result of its role in The Da Vinci Code, both from the increase in visitor numbers and the money paid for its use in the film, and because paintings and statues used in the film were auctioned to raise money for the cathedral.  The 900-year old building costs several million pounds a year to run, so the money was much needed.

Lincoln Cathedral from Broadgate footbridge - geograph.org.uk - 281923. Photo by Richard Croft, via Wikimedia Commons

Another Lincolnshire location used in the filming was the magnificent Burghley House near the attractive market town of Stamford.  The house was used to portray a French chateau in some of the scenes, with the stable courtyard being transformed into a 14^th-century French village.  Meanwhile, the interiors with their Italian-style furnishings were used as a stand-in for the inside of the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo in the town of the same name near Rome.  The garage scene at Chateau Villette, where the police chase took place was also filmed at the property.  Burghley House is generally regarded as England’s greatest Elizabethan house, and it includes eighteen State Rooms and a huge art collection including one of the most important private collections of 17^th century Italian paintings.

Burghley house U.K. Photo by Sreejith K, via Wikimedia Commons

Map of Lincoln.

Map of Burghley House.

WHERE WAS THE REAL MANSFIELD PARK? THE CASE FOR NORTHAMPTONSHIRE

Part of the fun of analysing the works of one of Britain’s most famous female authors, Jane Austen, is trying to work out what actual locations might have been the inspiration for the aristocratic properties which feature so heavily in her novels.  In the case of Mansfield Park, it has been necessary to apply some skilled detective work to the job. An examination of the available clues leads to the conclusion that the geographical setting for Mansfield Park was the county of Northamptonshire.  Not least the fact that, while writing Mansfield Park, Austen wrote to her sister Cassandra and asked her whether Northamptonshire was a “county of hedgerows” – a curious thing to ask unless she was looking for an accurate description of the setting for her novel.  The question is, where in Northamptonshire?  Following the letter to her sister, Jane’s enquiries about the county went the rounds of a number of her acquaintances, leading to further clues.

The first, and seemingly most popular, contender is Cottesbrooke Hall.  Two of the individuals in Jane’s circle who were involved in the enquiries about the area were Henry Sandford and Sir James Langham, who were among those asked for their opinions of the finished novel.  The Langham family were the owners of Cottesbrooke Hall, which matches some of the details of Mansfield Park such as the breakfast rooms and the library with adjoining billiard room.  It is not known whether Jane herself ever visited the property, but she could have got the description and/or plans from her contacts there.  The one fly in the ointment is the fact that Mansfield Park is described as a spacious modern-built house, whereas Cottesbrooke was built over a century before Mansfield Park was written.

Cottesbrooke Hall Northamptonshire. Photo by Cj1340, via Wikimedia Commons

However, a few years ago an academic threw doubt on Cottesbrooke as the real Mansfield Park, and came up with an alternative suggestion, arguing that Cassandra’s connection with the county was her friend Elizabeth Chute, sister of the Marchioness of Northampton, whose husband Charles Compton was the cousin of Spencer Percival, the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated, and an active supporter of the abolitionist movement.   The Marchioness himself lived at Castle Ashby in the county, making this a likely contender for the role of Mansfield Park.  Mansfield Park’s Sir Thomas Bertram had a slavery plantation in Antigua, and it is believed that Austen used the story as a roundabout way of paying tribute to Perceval’s anti-slavery campaign.  Could this be a sign that Castle Ashby was the inspiration for Mansfield Park?  It is true that Castle Ashby is even older than Cottesbrooke, but as is so often the case with these large properties, many alterations have been made since the original construction.

Castle Ashby (35571730485). Photo by Airwolfhound, via Wikimedia Commons

Either way, both properties are open to visitors and make a worthwhile detour when in the area, although in the case of Castle Ashby it is only the gardens which can be visited.  Cottesbrooke Hall and Gardens lies roughly midway between Northampton and Market Harborough. The Hall, a Queen Anne house dating from 1702, can be visited on a 45-minute tour in the afternoons and the house and gardens are open to visitors from early May to late September.  The landscaped park includes lakes which are visited by Canada Geese, and there are both ‘wild’ and more formal gardens to wander around.  Castle Ashby, a short distance to the east of Northampton, is the ancestral home of the 7^th Marquess of Northampton, and there are 35 acres of gardens set within a 10,000-acre estate, including an arboretum, an orangery and the Italian Gardens.  The gardens are open year-round, except for days when there are extreme weather conditions.

Map of Northamptonshire.

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.

MAN ALIVE!: WAKING NED

Cregneash, on the British Crown Dependency Isle of Man, is well known in tourist circles as the home of the National Folk Museum, an outdoor museum showcasing the Manx way of life in past times.  For the makers of the 1998 comedy film Waking Ned, also known as Waking Ned Devine, the compact and traditional nature of the village provided the perfect backdrop for this amusing tale about the fictional Irish village of Tullymore, where two friends from the village embark on a quest to find out the identity of a lottery winner believed to be living among them, but who turns out to have died with winning ticket in hand, prompting the friends to devise a plot to impersonate the winner.  The nature of the film has been compared to Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero, with similarly stunning scenery.

Cregneash HarryKelly'sCottage. Photo by Andy Stephenson, via Wikimedia Commons

The scene in which a chicken dinner is organised with the aim of finding out who the winner is was filmed in the Old Mill, in Glen Road, Laxey. The main attraction for visitors to Laxey is the enormous water wheel called the Lady Isabella, and from here there is a walk down to the sea front, which takes in the mill buildings where the scene was filmed.

Laxey

The thatched one-storey cottage where the Ned of the title is discovered dead in bed was filmed not in Cregneash, but in a location near Niarbyl, Dalby, on the west coast between Peel and Port Erin. The scene in the phone kiosk done up in green to look Irish, where the two friends phone the lottery organisers to make their claim, was filmed on Marine Drive, a scenic road to the south-west of Douglas, leading to Douglas Head.  Visitors using the road are taken through a distinctive castellated ‘gateway’, which used to be a toll gate.  The beach at Niarbyl, below Cregganmooar, is where the two pensioners go for a skinny dip prior to the arrival of the man from the lottery, who swoops in by helicopter, with some attendant fine views of the coast.

Cottages Niarbyl - geograph.org.uk - 777580. Photo by Chris Gunns, via Wikimedia Commons

James Nesbitt has the unenviable role of a pig farmer known as Pig Finn, whose lingering pig smells make it difficult to woo the ladies.  The real life location of Finn’s farm is at Raby Mooar, just north of Glen Maye, and Lizzie’s house is also there.  Glen Maye is typical of the beautiful leafy glens found in various parts of the island, with a waterfall and paths leading down to the beach.  Another glen seen in the film is Glen Mona, one of various locations featured in the nude motor-cycle ride.

The Isle of Man can be reached by ferry from the mainland, and also from Belfast, and it has an airport linking it to various destinations in the UK and to Dublin.

Map of the island

EDINBURGH ECCENTRICS: ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH'S 44 SCOTLAND STREET SERIES

The series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith known as the ’44 Scotland Street Series’, which started out as a series in The Scotsman, presents us with an interesting collection of characters who inhabit the address of the title, among them the child prodigy Bertie and his insufferable mother, Angus Lordie and his beer-loving dog with a gold tooth Cyril, always with one eye on tempting ankles to bite, and the anthropologist Domenica MacDonald.  Although the stories are fictional, the street and the favourite hangouts of the characters  are real places in the elegant New Town district of Edinburgh.

New Town is something of a misnomer, since this part of Edinburgh, considered to be a masterpiece of city planning, was actually built in the mid-to-late 18^th century.  The part of Edinburgh now known as Old Town had become intolerably overcrowded, necessitating an overspill of the population into another area.  Although the stone used in the construction of the buildings has a rather dour, dark appearance, the architectural styles make up for it, with the neo-classical style prevailing and the inclusion of Grecian pillars on the outsides as well as other embellishments in the interiors.  Moray Place, which features in the series, is a typical example.

Moray Place, Edinburgh New Town. Photo by Kim Traynor, via Wikimedia Commons

So where do the characters hang out?  The delicatessen Valvona and Crolla in Elm Row is a favourite source of upmarket edibles.  The deli has a cafe bar attached and is an institution in Edinburgh.  The goods on sale there include a variety of coffee called Scotland Street in homage to its role in the series.  Angus and Cyril like to visit The Cumberland Bar in Cumberland Street, which describes itself as a classic Victorian New Town bar.  It has been reported that the owner of the bar once ran up to McCall Smith in Waitrose to thank him for the extra business his bar’s new found fame had brought him.  The Cafe St Honore in Thistle Street was the scene of an intimate lunch in The World According to Bertie.  Another cafe called Glass & Thompson, in Dundas Street, which was visited by the Glasgow gangster Lard O’Connor, has sadly closed recently.

Cyril the dog gets about a bit, especially on the occasion when he is stolen and manages to escape from his captor.  The canal where he has his encounter with a group of eider ducks is presumably the Union Canal which links Glasgow and Edinburgh, while the river which reminds him of his early life in the Hebrides would be the nearby Water of Leith, which flows out into the sea at Leith.  Drummond Street Gardens is the scene of a brief canine love affair which results in six puppies, an event which elicited a huge response from readers worldwide.  

Water of Leith01. Photo by Christian Bickel, via Wikimedia Commons

Fans of the books who want to visit these and other places written about may be interested to know that in 2016 an app was launched by Global called the Alexander McCall Smith App, which features walking trails and quizzes.

Map of the city

POLDARK REVISITED: THE GRAND HOUSES

The latest Poldark series is now upon us, and for this second piece on the locations used in the filming, rather than the gorgeous Cornish coastline, which I have already extensively covered in a previous piece, I thought I would focus on the grand houses occupied by the more well-to-do characters.  There are principally three of these, none of which are in Cornwall.

One house which has been seen since the start of the first series is the home occupied by Elizabeth and her family, Trenwith.  The property which was used for filming the interior and exterior scenes of Trenwith is Chavenage House, an Elizabethan house located near Prince Charles’ Highgrove in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.  The interior of the chapel at Chavenage was used to represent Sawle Church.  The house has a fascinating history; one of its former guests was Oliver Cromwell and his general Ireton, who stayed there in 1648.  Visitors to the house will get a guided tour included in the ticket price, during which, as well as the history of the property, they will hear about the various ghosts lurking in its darkest recesses.

Chavenage House 3 - geograph - 3507432. Photo by Philip Halling, via Wikimedia Commons.

Another imposing property inhabited by members of the Poldark upper crust is the house known as Killewarren, home to the Penvenen family, formerly the now deceased uncle of Caroline, Ray Penvenen, and more recently by Caroline and her husband Dr Dwight Enys.  The house portraying Killewarren is Great Chalfield Manor, a short distance west of Melksham in Wiltshire, owned by the National Trust.  The 15^th century moated manor house was built for a clothier who was a member of the local landed gentry.  Visitors to the property must join a guided tour in order to explore the manor house.  The garden, in the Arts and Crafts style, includes features such as topiary and a rose garden.  The southern aspect, with its grassy expanse leading down to the tranquil pond, will be familiar to Poldark fans.  This is where Caroline and Dwight were seen enjoying a moment together in a recent episode.

Great Chalfield Manor - 11. Photo by Stuart Buchan, via Wikimedia Commons.

In the more recent series of Poldark we have unfortunately been increasingly exposed to the odious George Warleggan, whose Georgian town house is filmed at Dyrham Park, a National Trust property in South Gloucestershire, just to the south of the M4 motorway.  Convenient for Bath, this 17^th century mansion with its garden and deer park will take up the best part of a day out.  The house itself is full of artistic treasures, while the grounds offer extensive walking and the Orangery offers an insight into an 18^th century greenhouse.  The deer park is home to some 200 fallow deer.   The estate has been used before for filming, including for the film version of Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains Of The Day.

Dyrham Park lower park. Photo by Rwendland, via Wikimedia Commons.

OTTER PARADISE: RING OF BRIGHT WATER/ISLAND OF SEIL

Ring of Bright Water, based on a true story which was the subject of a book by Gavin Maxwell, was made in 1969, but the story it is based on has a timeless appeal, as do the locations used in the film.  The story begins in London, where an office worker called Graham Merill is drawn to an otter in a pet shop (Did they really sell otters in pet shops?).  He takes it home and names it Mij, but quickly realises that a flat in London is no place for an otter, so he buys a ramshackle old house in the wilds of West Scotland and sets up home there with his new friend.

As Merill makes his way to his new home by train we get a glimpse of the Glenfinnan Viaduct, made famous in the Harry Potter films and one of the key points along the Jacobite Steam Train route.  On arrival, the village nearest to the house is a typical little Scottish fishing hamlet, with rows of simple one-storey houses.  In real life the village is Ellenabeich on the Island of Seil, not entirely an island, being connected to the ‘mainland’ by the Atlantic Bridge, or the “Bridge Over the Atlantic”.  One of the most prominent businesses in the village is The Oyster Bar; this was the M. A. Cameron General Stores in the film.  

The Oyster Brewery, Ellenabeich. - geograph.org.uk - 457322 Photo by Steve Partridge, via Wikimedia Commons

Oban, which lies 10 miles to the north, also plays a role in the film, when Mij’s owner goes to buy fish for the otter.  The Railway Pier in Oban is the location of the fishing port where the fish sale takes place.  Another location featured in the film is the Firth of Lorne, where the scene depicting the hunt for the Basking Shark was filmed.  The Firth occupies an area of sea off the south-east edge of the island of Mull.

And what of the real story of Gavin Maxwell and his otters?   The writer named the place where he brought them up Camusfearna in the book, in order to hide the true location, which was in fact Sandaig near Glenelg on the mainland opposite Skye.

Beach at Sandaig - geograph.org.uk - 916465. Photo by Peter Jones, via Wikimedia Commons

The Island of Seil is the northernmost of the Slate Islands.  Finding your way here from the A816 from Oban can be confusing – you need to follow the sign pointing to Easdale.  Easdale is another island just offshore, but this whole area is often referred to as Easdale.  As well as sampling the delights of The Oyster Bar, visitors can take a boat trip with Seafari Adventures, who have a base in the village.  There is also a large gift shop called Highland Arts next to the car and coach park.

Map of Easdale.