What Life is Really Like at Highclere Castle When Downton Abbey Is Filming
Before it became famous as the setting for Downton Abbey, Highclere Castle was already a bustling estate. It was open to the public for tours and had been the filming location for a popular British comedy, Jeeves and Wooster. The current owners, Lord and Lady Carnarvon, are consummate professional hosts, welcoming tens of thousands of visitor each year and hosting royals, including Queen Elizabeth (George Herbert, the current Earl of Carnarvon, is her godson) in their home.
Naturally, filming the Downton Abbey movie was just another day in the life at the castle, which means they like to have "good fun" with it, as Lady Carnarvon. Here are five things you might not know about filming at Highclere Castle...
1. Compared to the television series, filming the movie was a cinch.
“For the TV show they would arrive in February and leave in July, coming and going and coming and going. Sometimes we would have the public leaving April 19 after our two-week Easter period was finished and the Downton Abbey lorries would be sitting in the parking lot waiting to pull in as the last guest walked out.
We had the same location manager for the show and the movie, which was so helpful as he already knew the shorthand of the place and what they wanted to do. We only filmed the movie in September and October, so everyone got to enjoy it. It felt just like a school reunion!”
2. The director and producer both stayed at Highclere to learn what living there was really like.
“The director Michael Engler came and spent the weekend with us when I had some people in town so he could see what Highclere was really about. One of the producers, Mark Hubbard, came as well. It was really important to embed them in Highclere, to learn what it was like to sleep, eat, entertain, there. They both said they didn't want to leave, which is how I feel about it too."
3. There was a lot of negotiation when it came to which spaces could be filmed.
“I’m always trying to continue the tradition of kindness and giving back at Highclere; that is the culture we have at the office. We are always trying to understand what other people want but… then we started to understand that they are a film company so they wanted everything. We had to be really specific about which rooms they could and could not use. But, I would allow them to go into other rooms because I am a very, very nice person. We got used to working with them to make sure they had what they needed.”
4. The film crew had to work around thousands of sheep...and a few pigs.
“We have 1,800 ewes and 3,500 lambs—they stayed on the property the whole time during filming. I recently also bought two rare English lop pigs, Thelma and Louise... of course then the boar visited and now we have 16 piglets. I think I will keep two more and name them Edith and Mary. Anyway, we have about 6,000 acres so there was lots of land to choose from.”
5. The new security system is unexpectedly secure.
“When we started filming we had to install a series of padlocks on the grounds since there were so many people around. I assigned all the codes to significant dates in history to help remember them. So someone will ask for the code to get to one place or another and I’ll say ‘The succession of George III or the Crimean War,’ then they’ll say, ‘Well when is that?,’ and I say, ‘Look it up!’ I think I might be driving the builders and staff crazy, but it is really good fun.”
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