Highclere Castle - the real Downton Abbey

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Highclere Castle - the real Downton Abbey

When Julian Fellows began to write the story of Downton Abbey, he had Highclere Castle in mind for the set. Highclere Castle is a great setting but it's history must have also been a great inspiration.

The story of Downton Abbey is set in Yorkshire and is the home of the aristocratic Crawley family. The real life Downton Abbey is Highclere Castle. It is the home of the aristocratic Carnarvon family. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon had financial difficulties and so he married an American airess, just like Lord Grantham. He was involved in a car crash which left him seriously injured. Mathew Crawley was not so fortunate in his car crash. The 5th Earl nearly bankrupted the estate with his investment in the search for Tutankhamun's tomb. Lord Grantham nearly lost Downton with a bad investment. During the First World War both Highclere Castle and Downton Abbey became a military hospital for wounded soldiers although the 5th Countess of Carnarvon probably did not have as much interference from her family members as Cora did from hers.

If you like looking at historic buildings or you are a Downton Abbey fan then Highclere Castle is a great day out for you. To walk around the building, and some of the grounds, you have to buy a ticket. The number of tickets each day is limited and they sell out quickly so make sure that you buy before you go. If you can, buy well in advance.

My wife and I both like Downton Abbey and historic buildings so in the summer of 2021 we spent a great day at Highclere Castle. We stayed in the area for a few days at the Carpenters Arms about 10 minutes drive from the Castle. We had intended to stay at the Carnarvon Arms which is even closer but there were no vacancies for when we wanted to stay.

As we drove through the gates and up the drive that we had seen so often on TV it had to be the Downton Abbey CD that we listened to. Then, across the fields, Downton Abbey came into view.

The field for car parking was large but it was easy to park quite close to the house.

We were fortunate enough to have tickets that enabled us to be among the first to enter the house that day, so we stood outside the big imposing doors waiting for Carson to open them for us.  

"Carson" turned out to be a very friendly woman who gave us an outline of what we could expect and, disappointingly, said that we could not take any photographs indoors.

From the entrance hall we entered the North Library.

Standing in the North Library looking towards the main Library, what struck me was that it was identical to what I had seen on the television.

The furniture, paintings, carpets, etc. in Downton are not props. The furniture that the Crawley's sit on is the same furniture that the Caernarvon's sit on.

You can easily imagine Lord Grantham standing, "fending for himself", as the rest of the family sit on the red velvet sofas hoping that someone will serve them.

Out of the window we could see Jackdaw's Castle. Jackdaw's Castle is a folly.

The guide in the library informed us that the purpose of a folly is to draw your eye to the distance so that you can appreciate how extensive the grounds are.

I had always thought that a folly was a mistake.

Next came the Music Room.

The Music Room does not appear much in Downton but is well worth a visit to see the desk and chair that once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Don't forget to look up at the ceiling to see Athene Rising.

The drawing room contains an 1890s Steinway grand piano. Why it's in the Drawing Room and not the Music Room I do not know. In times gone by guests were encouraged to play it.

Today you are asked not to touch it. The Drawing Room also contains a large crystal chandelier. It was a wedding present from Alfred de Rothschild to his daughter and the 5th Earl. The dowry made the Highclere estate financially secure once again.

The Saloon appears often in Downton Abbey but usually just as a walk through scene. It seemed smaller than I imagined it.

Apart from looking up the main staircase to Lady Mary and Lady Edith on their various wedding days, the only scenes of significance that I remember in the Saloon is the enormous Christmas Tree and when the carpet was rolled back so that dancing could take place.

The dining room is where much more than eating occurs. This is where we find most of the intrigue of Downtown Abbey.  

All meal times have a dress code, especially the evening meal. It also has a strict etiquette for who you should talk to during different courses of the meal. Get it wrong and you incur the wrath of the Dowager Countess. The most dramatic scene in the dining room has to be when Lord Grantham's stomach ulcer burst.

Outside of the Dining Room is one of the servant stairways leading to the bedrooms. You can not enter some of the bedrooms, you can just look into them from the doorway. Most you can not even look in to but with about 50 bedrooms it would be too many anyway.

One of the bedrooms that you can enter is the Mercia Bedroom. This is the bedroom that is Lady Grantham's in Downton Abbey.

Many times we would see O'Brien enter through one door and leave by the other. She was really walking into a cupboard.

Attached to Lady Grantham's bedroom is Lord Grantham's dressing room, except that when you walk through the doorway you realise that it is not the dressing room but another bedroom. The set for Lord Grantham's dressing room is somewhere else.

The upstairs corridors give a great view down into the Saloon. Branson got into trouble for showing the teacher this view so make sure that no one is watching you. What struck me most about the corridors is that they do not look as long as on TV. Maybe Lady Grantham, Lady Mary, and Anna did not have to carry Mr Pamuk as far as I had thought.

The final part of the house tour takes you down the main staircase back to the Saloon. I took my time walking down the famous staircase with its oak banister and luxurious red carpet. I imagined the famous people, fictional and real, who had walked down the staircase. This includes the Queen who visited a number of times particularly when the previous Earl was alive. The TV series The Crown suggested that the Queen and the 6th Earl may have been more than friends. The Queen was the current Earl's godmother.

Going down the second servants stairway off the Saloon does not take you, as you would expect, to the kitchen. The Downton Kitchens together with the servants corridor and some of the bedrooms are filmed at Ealing Studios. The stairway instead takes you to the Egyptian Exhibition containing artefacts from the 5th Earl's excavations in Egypt together with a replica of what he saw when he found Tutankhamun's tomb. Entrance to the Egyptian Exhibition requires an additional payment. Tickets should purchased at the same time as for the house. 

 

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When we purchased our tickets for Highclere we also bought tickets for afternoon tea. As we waited for our allotted time, we enjoyed coffee on the lawn outside the marquee.

It is my wife that enjoys afternoon teas rather than myself. I find that I am more hungry after afternoon tea than before so I also bought a pasty from the marquee.

As you would expect when there is a large demand and only one supplier, food and drink at Highclere Castle is more than you would normally pay but not excessively so. The pasty that I had was very tasty.

Before I write about my experience of afternoon tea at Highclere, I feel that I should say a little about my view of afternoon teas in general.

Afternoon teas are a waste of money. You get a small amount of food for a lot of money. My wife loves afternoon tea so we have "enjoyed" afternoon tea in quite a number of places including Blenheim Palace and on the Royal Yacht.

Sitting in what must have previously been a stable was not the most salubrious of places for afternoon tea. I would have preferred to have had it on the lawn.

Afternoon tea was tasty, well presented, and served by courteous and pleasant staff so if you are somebody who enjoys afternoon tea then don't let me put you off.

If you like looking around gardens, there are 6 to choose from at Highclere. There is the original Monks' Garden, the White Border, the Wood of Goodwill, the Rose Arbour, the Wild Flower Meadow and the Healing Herb Garden. I walked through the Wild Flower Meadow but I am not sure which of the other gardens I walked around. To me a garden is a garden. The gardens that I walked through were colourful and well stocked but don't ask me what the flowers are.

Walking is a different matter. I love walking and the estate has extensive grounds to walk around. When I go to country estates like Highclere I like to walk to their follies. The folly is visible from the house and so the house is visible from the folly. The view from the folly gives you a different perspective.

Also as you walk back from the folly you might turn a corner in the road and the house appears giving a different perspective.  

Or you might come out of a wood or reach the top of a hill and the house suddenly appears looking slightly different.

I only had time to walk to three of the six follies at Highclere.

The Jackdaw's Castle was the obvious folly to walk to first. As I expected it looks rundown but it probably always did. Something that I have learnt from going to follies on other estates is that they are more impressive from a distance than they are close up. They are built to show the expanse of the grounds. I don't think that they are built for you to actually go up to them. I do love the view from the far side of Jackdaw's Castle towards the house.

The Temple of Dianna is the other folly that appears in Downton Abbey. It only appears once that I remember. It is in the background when Mr Bates throws his limp corrector into a lake.

The Etruscan Temple is a nice place to sit and view the scenery. Just make sure that you have your back to the "Temple" so that you can not see it. It is a great walk back to the house through the Wildflower Meadow.

Don't forget to sit on Lady Mary's Seat. And finally, when it is time to leave, make sure that you do not leave the estate the way that you came in. Otherwise you will miss a great gate. 

Interior photographs courtesy of Highclere Castle. The external photographs are mine. You are free to copy them.

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