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Downton Abbey in
Bampton
Book One
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A Carnival Films production Produced by Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame Written by Julian Fellowes Filmed on location at Highclere Castle, Newbury, Berks, and Bampton, Oxfordshire
Cast Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham Robert, Earl of Grantham Cora, Countess of Grantham Lady Mary Crawley Lady Edith Crawley Lady Sybil Crawley Isobel Crawley Matthew Crawley Mr. Carson Mrs. Hughes John Bates Anna O'Brien Thomas William Gwen
Maggie Smith Hugh Bonneville Elizabeth McGovern Michelle Dockery Laura Carmichael Jessica Brown-Findlay Penelope Wilton Dan Stevens Jim Carter Phyllis Logan Brendan Coyle Joanne Froggatt Siobhan Finneran Rob James-Collier Thomas Howes Rose Leslie
The series is set in the fictional Downton Abbey, and follows the lives of the Crawley family and their servants in the reign of King George V. The first series spans the two years prior to the Great War, commencing with news of the sinking of the Titanic, an event that sets the story in motion. The second series picks up after the declaration of war that we saw at the end of series one. Highclere Castle in Berkshire, home of the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon is used for Downton Abbey, whilst Bampton was used for filming the outdoor scenes, most notably St Mary's Church and the village library, which serves as the entrance to the Cottage Hospital, whilst a house in Church View is the Post Office where the first series begins with the telegraph boy cycling to Downton Abbey with the telegram bringing news of the sinking of the Titanic and the loss of the heir to the family estates. Downton Abbey is written by Julian Fellowes. Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, (known as Julian Fellowes), is an English actor, novelist, film director and screenwriter, as well as a Conservative peer. He also wrote Gosford Park, which won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay and he appeared in the TV series Monarch of the Glen.
Highclere Castle is the home of Lord and Lady Carnarvon and has been the home of the Carnarvon family since 1679. Built on an ancient site, the original house was recorded in the Domesday Book.
St. Mary’s 12th Century Church, Bampton. It is in Bampton that most of the outside scenes for Downton Abbey are filmed. Bampton is a village (some would say a town) in Oxfordshire whose history goes back to the Iron Age. The area around the church has many old properties and some of the streets have changed very little since Edwardian times. The green outside the church is where the Fairground scene was filmed.
Downton Abbey is a fictitious house and village in Yorkshire, 9 miles from Ripon and 6 miles from Thirsk. The actual locations are Highlere Castle, near Newbury in Berkshire where all the interiors are shot (apart from the kitchen which is recreated in a studio) and the village of Bampton in Oxfordshire where most of street scenes, fairground and church are located.
Early morning in Church View, Bampton. Church View awaits the arrival of the film crew and the actors.
Church View is normally full of parked cars - both sides of the road so it was very nice for the locals to see it empty, although everyone had to find somewhere else to park!
The film crew start to assemble on the green by the church of St. Mary’s, Bampton. Amongst the ‘props’ were an assortment of cars, charabancs, horses and carts and lorries. The generator for the lighting was parked at the back of the church, whilst make-up and wardrobe were using mini buses to ferry the artistes to and fro to a nearby location.
The house in Church View, Bampton which became the Post Office from which the telegram announcing the sinking of the Titanic came at the beginning of the first episode.
Setting up to film outside the ‘Post Office’.
Violet, Dowager Countess of Grantham Dame Maggie Smith
Dame Maggie began her career at the Oxford Playhouse. In 1969, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as an unorthodox Scottish school teacher in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. She was also awarded the 1978 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the brittle actress Diana Barry in California Suite, acting opposite Michael Caine. More recent films are Tea with Mussolini, where she appeared as the formidable Lady Hesterand, the judgmental sister in Ladies in Lavender, and the cantankerous snob Constance, Countess of Trentham in Gosford Park, for which she received another Oscar nomination. On stage, her many roles have included starring as Amanda in a revival of Private Lives. She won a Tony Award in 1990 for Best Actress in Peter Shaffer's Lettice and Lovage, in which she starred as an eccentric tour guide in an English stately home. In 2007, she appeared in Edward Albee's The Lady from Dubuque at Theatre Royal Haymarket. Dame Maggie was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1970, and was raised to Dame Commander (DBE) in 1990.
Many of the houses in Church View became Pubs and the Post Office was also in Church View.
Robert, Earl of Grantham Hugh Richard Bonneville
On television, Hugh Bonneville played the title role in Philip Larkin. Other screen credits include Daniel Deronda; Tipping The Velvet, Take a Girl Like You, Madame Bovary and the Emmy Award-winning Churchill drama, The Gathering Storm. On stage, work includes Sam Mendes' production of Habeas Corpus. His work for the Royal Shakespeare Company includes Laertes to Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, The Alchemist, Two Gentlemen of Verona and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore.
Some of the many vehicles used in the filming.
Michelle made her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre In 2006 and made her television debut as Betty in Fingersmith in 2005. She appeared in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and was Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath. In 2009, she appeared in the two-part Cranford Christmas special for the BBC, and starred as the lead character in a modernised BBC adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.
Lady Mary Crawley Michelle Dockery
Dan has worked extensively in theatre in Britain and the United States. He was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award for his portrayal of Orlando in As You Like It in 2006. He starred as Nick Guest in the BBC Television adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty. Later that year he played Simon Bliss in Hay Fever by NoĂŤl Coward at the Haymarket Theatre, alongside Peter Bowles and Judi Dench. He appeared as Lord Holmwood in Dracula for the BBC, and as Basil Brookes in the BBC Emmy-awardwinning film Maxwell. In 2008 he appeared in Sense & Sensibility, playing Edward Ferrars,
Matthew Crawley Dan Stevens
The entrance to Downton Cottage Hospital - otherwise known as Bampton Library!
Jim Carter's film credits include A Month in the Country, The Madness of King George , Richard III, and Shakespeare in Love. He played John Faa in The Golden Compass , the film adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, and also starred in House Of 9 as The Watcher, and the executioner in Alice in Wonderland. His television credits include Lipstick on Your Collar, Cracker, The Way We Live Now, The Singing Detective, A Very British Coup, Midsomer Murders and the BBC series Cranford. He is married to actress Imelda Staunton.
Mr Carson
Jim Carter
After graduation, Phyllis Logan joined the Dundee Repertory Theatre which she left in 1979 to work on stage in Edinburgh. She also worked regularly on Scottish television. On the BBC Scotland production, The White Bird Passes, she first met writer-director Michael Radford and in his first feature film, Another Time, Another Place in 1982, he cast her in the leading role of Janie, for which she won a Gold Award for Best Actress at the Taormina Film Festival, the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress in 1983 and the BAFTA Award for the Most Outstanding Newcomer to Film in 1984. She had a regular role as Lady Jane Felsham in the television series Lovejoy and played Inspector Frost's love interest in If Dogs Run Free, the very last story in the A Touch of Frost series.
Mrs. Hughes Phyllis Logan
One of the most impressive scenes in the first series was of the fair which included a Helter Skelter which the children of Bampton were allowed to use - free!
This was a night scene on the green in front of the church.
John Bates Brendan Coyle
Brendan Coyle received a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for his performance in McPherson's The Weir, and won a New York Critics Theater World Award for Outstanding Broadway Debut for the same play in its New York production. In 2001, Coyle appeared in the film Conspiracy as Gestapo Chief Heinrich MĂźller and Nicholas Higgins on the BBC's North and South. Since 2008, he has played the pivotal part of Robert Timmins in three BBC series based on the Lark Rise to Candleford novels.
Joanne Froggatt's first major TV role was as single teenage mum Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street. Her other TV credits include Murder in the Outback, Robin Hood and Life On Mars. In her first film, In Our Name, Froggatt is Suzy, a soldier readjusting to being a mother after serving in Iraq. The 30-year-old actress is keen on more film roles after she has finished filming Downton Abbey, but her next engagement is in two plays as part of the Bush Theatre's Schools Season. In John Donnelly's play The Knowledge she plays the lead role of a teacher in a failing School.
Anna Joanne Froggatt
Many of the scenes were shot in and around St. Mary’s Church.
A lot of the time was spent in waiting - a picture of boredom!
More waiting time!
Jessica Brown-Findlay trained with the National Youth Ballet and the Associates of the Royal Ballet. Aged 15, she was invited to dance with the Kirov at the Royal Opera House for a summer season. After being seen by a casting agent, she was cast in the lead role of Emelia in the film Albatross, directed by Niall MacCormick and was subsequently cast in an episode of the Misfits and in Downton Abbey.
Lady Sybil Crawley Jessica Brown-Findlay
Laura graduated from the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2007 and was working as a receptionist in a physician's office and about to go on tour in Dubai in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, when she was asked to read for a role in Downton Abbey. The rest is history.
Lady Edith Crawley Laura Carmichael
On the move!
Setting up to shoot the departure of the Ripon to Pickering bus - from Church View, Bampton!
On the move!
The chauffeur and Lady Sybil in Lord Grantham’s car plus a film crew aboard a low-loader about to record a scene in the car, giving the impression that the car is driving along.
Some of the Bampton locations used in Downton Abbey.
The green by the church, used for the fair with Isobel Crawley’s house in the background.
Church View.
Preparing to cover up the dog poo bin and the drain pipe - and after.
Two of the Church View houses become pubs.
St. Mary’s Church becomes St. Michael’s.
Erecting the stalls for the fairground scene.
At the end of a long day - it’s all about the waiting game.
Bampton photographs by John Grout, Mike Renwick And Janet Rouse
The authors of this work acknowledge the respective copyright owners for the images and photographs used.
A Bampton Community Archive publication BCA-24/B June 2015