LOVE AND BETRAYAL IN NORTHERN IRELAND: DEATH AND NIGHTINGALES

I often find BBC dramas rather depressing, and this was certainly the case with Death and Nightingales, recently aired on BBC1 and starring Jamie Dornan. However the 3-parter, which was set and filmed in Northern Ireland, made the most of the natural beauty and historical heritage of this part of the UK. Although the story is set in County Fermanagh, two of the main filming locations are the National Trust property Springhill in County Londonderry and the grounds of Myra Castle near Strangford, County Down.

The drama, a story of love and betrayal set in 1885 in the Fermanagh countryside and based on the novel by Eugene McCabe, has as its main focus the home occupied by Billy Winters (Matthew Rhys) and his stepdaughter Beth (Ann Skelly). The property used for the filming of the interior house scenes was Springhill, a 17th-century plantation home in Moneymore, County Londonderry. The National Trust closed the property for the filming, which it must have done with some reluctance, as the filming took place during the busy months of May and June.

The house was apparently chosen because its history would have reflected the history of the Winters family in the story, in which the Protestant grandfather of Billy Winters would have bought his house around 1800, and the architecture would have been similar to Springhill’s. 12 spaces within the house were used during the filming, including the apartment used by National Trust staff, who had to move out to make way for the filming of Beth’s quarters. Springhill is home to no less than 8 species of bats, and the film crew had to wait until the bats had roosted each evening before commencing night shoots.

Springhill House, Moneymore. Photo by Kenneth Allen, via Wikimedia Commons

The dairy scenes and the boating scenes were filmed at the site of Myra Castle to the west of Strangford, County Down. The original castle, named Walshestown Castle, was built in the 16th century, but nowadays all that remains is a Landcape Park, where visitors can enjoy features including the Summerhouse, the Gate Lodge and the Pond among others.

Walshestown Castle Geograph-3036259-by-Mike-Searle. Via Wikimedia Commons

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.

AN AMERICAN BILLIONAIRE IN ESSEX: TRUST/AUDLEY END

The American-born oil tycoon and billionaire J. Paul Getty was born in Minnesota, but in later life transferred to England, setting up home in the sumptuous 16^th century Tudor manor house Sutton Place near Guildford, Surrey, where he lived for the last 17 years of his life.  Getty was notorious for his sex drive, going through several wives, and even in his eighties there was a collection of what the New York Times described as “desperately hopeful women” hanging around his living quarters.  However, despite his enormous wealth and vast collection of art and antiques, he was less generous with his money than with his physical offerings, and the only female companion to receive more than a derisory amount in his will after his death was Penelope Kitson, an interior designer he developed a relationship with after hiring her for her decorating prowess. 

When Getty’s grandson John Paul Getty III was kidnapped in 1973 the mean side of his grandfather again came to light.  Believing that the kidnap was a ploy to extract money from him, he refused to pay a penny, not unreasonably since payment of a ransom in this case could have led to further kidnappings of members of the family. It was only the loss of an ear that finally moved grandfather Getty into action.  This is the backdrop of the stylish TV series Trust, with Donald Sutherland magnificently cast as J. Paul Getty and the elegantly turned out Anna Chancellor as Penelope Kitson.  Added to which, the role of Sutton Place is admirably played by the Essex property Audley End House near Saffron Walden, Essex.

AudleyEndHouse. Photo by Paul Wells, via Wikimedia Commons

The current owner of Sutton Place is a Russian oligarch, which meant the property could not be used for the filming, so the production team came up with Audley End as an alternative, and what a great choice it was.  In fact the production team are on record as believing that Audley End gave more gravitas to the filming than Sutton Place would have done.  Moreover, the extensive art collection contained in the property reflects the massive collection held by Getty at Sutton Place.

The property is a 17^th-century Jacobean estate located a short distance to the west of the attractive market town Saffron Walden.  The estate is run by English Heritage and consists of the house itself, a third of its original size, and the gardens which were designed by Capability Brown.  Highlights of the house are the Great Hall, the state apartments, dressing rooms and libraries, as well as an 18^th-century Gothic-style chapel.  One of the pivotal scenes in the series, in which Getty announces to the press that he will not pay the ransom, was shot in a long hall within the property.

However, not all the scenes were filmed at Audley End.  Some of the scenes, for example the scenes showing Getty dining with his bevy of ladies, were filmed at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire, a property which has been used many times for filming, for example in My Week With Marilyn (see my previous blog post).  The reason for the change in location was that the dining room at Audley End was considered too small to make the necessary impact.

Dining room at Hatfield House-19478173458. Photo by Matt Brown, via Wikimedia Commons

Map of Audley End and Saffron Walden.

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.