December 5, 2024
8 mins
Destination: Cotswolds
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The Cotswolds on Film: 9 Locations to Visit
Steeped in history and heritage, the UK is home to many famous film and television locations. Stars of both blockbuster movies and acclaimed television series have graced the humble villages and streets across the country.
Historic locations such as Blenheim Palace, Hampton Court Palace and Bamburgh Castle are the perfect backdrop for period dramas, giving an authentic look and feel on screen.
The Cotswolds is no exception when it comes to being front and centre of the action. There are plenty of film and television locations to visit in the Cotswolds, amongst the honey-coloured villages and rolling hills.
From Harry Potter to Bridget Jones, below we give a brief guide to 8 film locations to visit in the Cotswolds.
Tetbury – Rivals
Steamy Rivals, an eight-part adaptation of the Jilly Cooper series, was released in 2024. Set in the fictional county of Rutshire the plot follows the world of TV production in the 1980s. Whilst the more lurid scenes left the largest impression on viewers, it was the views of the classic English countryside that piqued our interest.
Cotchester, the town featured throughout the series is actually the Cotswold market town of Tetbury. Whilst The Priory, where the O’Hara family live is Chavenage House – a stone’s throw from Tebury. Aidan Turner, who plays Declan in Rivals, will have been familiar with Chavenage as it was also used as a filming location for BBC series, Poldark.
Bath – Bridgerton and Wonka
Bridgerton
A new period drama to hit Netflix in the past few years is Bridgerton. Based up the book series by Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels. It follows The Bridgerton family and the 8 siblings, finding their way through the turmoils of London High Society during the Regency Era.
Surrounded by loved ones, friends and enemies they spend their days promenading with potential suitors, gossiping at the dress makers and attending lavish balls in the evening. Many of the scenes are filmed in Bath with the famous Bath Crescent appearing in scenes and the No.1 Royal Crescent museum doubling at the Featherington family home.
The peaceful cobblestone square of Abbey Green had a starring role in Bridgerton’s first season, as the setting of shopping trips and dress fittings at the Modiste Dress Shop.
Wonka
Starring Olivia Colman and Hugh Grant, they spent several weeks hanging around the streets and landmarks of Bath whilst filming for the 2023 film, Wonka. Bath Abbey, Parade Gardens, The Colonnades, Bath Street and Walcot Street are all backdrops you can spot in the film. Causing quite the stir when being filmed, these landmarks were roped off for the Hollywood stars to deliver their movie magic complete with atmospheric artificial snow!
Bampton- Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey was first aired in 2010 and has gone on to become one of the worlds most watched TV dramas with six series and two spin-off films. Following the lives of the Grantham and Crawley families living in Yorkshire, but in reality, the film location is much further south.
The village of Bampton on the Cotswold / Oxfordshire border is the real-life Downton Abbey village from the television series. Including the church where Mary and Matthew got married, the hospital where Doctor Clarkson worked as well as the village pubs and post offices where the period drama unfolded.
Bampton Library has now been party restored and was the location for Downton Cottage Hospital. From the small visitor centre inside you can purchase the Downton Abbey Mile map which will highlight the areas to walk and see the famous landmarks from screen, although be mindful that many are near to private residences.
Featuring in numerous episodes is also the village green and the Crawley House. Churchgate House is situated on the green and although you can’t see the house, you can just see the top of it poking out above the high stone wall. The village green, smaller on screen that perhaps you might imagine, is situated between the Church and the Library.
The pubs that featured in the Downton Abbey, The Dog and Duck and The Grantham Arms are in fact both residential houses. The exteriors were cleverly given some probs and a pub sign to transform them into the watering holes of the series.
It is believed that the producers chose the village of Bampton as the stone cottages are similar to that of Yorkshire villages where the fictional village is set. As well as this, Bampton is relatively preserved in time, with little growth or change in character from the early 20th century.
Blenheim Palace – Harry Potter
Standing on the bank of The Lake in a historic landscape below Blenheim Palace is a Cedar of Lebanon known as The Harry Potter Tree for its role in the 2007 film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. The scene filmed here was centred around Professor Snape’s memories of a time when, as a student at Hogwarts, he was bullied by Harry Potter’s father while sitting under the tree.
As you walk away from the Palace with the Orangery and Café behind you and cross over the Vanbrugh’s Grand Bridge, the ‘Harry Potter Tree’ if just to your left. With the clear hollow opening it is unmistakable from the film.
Blenheim Palace, especially its grand interior has been used as a location for several other period dramas.
Chipping Campden – Lockwood
The market square of Chipping Campden is the backdrop for where the opening episode of Netflix supernatural thriller Lockwood & Co was filmed. The monument seen in the first episode was a set built at Market Square Car Park for the shot, outside the Town Hall. The market square in real life does not have a monument but a small carpark! The trial was filmed inside Chipping Campden Old Police Station’s historical courtroom adding to the authenticity of the scenes.
The series revolves around a ghost-haunting agency headed by Anthony Lockwood and the other two members of the agency, Lucy Carlyle and George Karim. Not much more of the picturesque town of Chipping Campden appears in the series but nevertheless it is a wonderful Cotswold town to visit for local pubs and walks as well as ghost hunting!
Snowshill – Bridget Jones Diary
If you’ve ever sat and watched the famous turkey curry Boxing Day Buffet scene in Bridget Jones and wondered, where was that picturesque village and family home, well you can find it in the Cotswold village of Snowshill.
The village, the village green and a resident’s home were all transformed into a magical Christmassy scene for the classic chick flick. Perhaps most interesting is that the filming with Hugh Grant and Renne Zellweger took place in July and so production had to cut off flower heads, hang Christmas lights in windows and erect a Christmas tree in the village to create the appearance of a chilly winter’s day! Not forgetting the blanket of artificial snow that covered everything! It was an exciting time for the village.
Snowshill is close to Moreton-in-Marsh and close by are the fabulous Snowshill Manor Gardens which did not feature in the film, but the carpark is the location for a meeting between Bridget and her parents in the car!
Chavenage House – Poldark
Chavenage House is a wonderful Elizabethan house of mellow Cotswold stone.
It is a current, lived in family home which is often used as a location for film and television. Famous stars to have graced the house include Oscar-winning Eddie Redmayne, Jamie Dornan, the late Warren Clarke.
The BBC’s remake of Poldark is based on the romantic novels by Winston Graham. Although the books and the series are set in Cornwall and many of the locations are in the Southwest corner of the UK, the filming location for the Poldark family home in the series is Chavenage House in Tetbury, Gloucestershire.
What is unique about Chavenage is that you can escape into the peaceful surroundings of a Cotswold manor, virtually unchanged for 400 years. It is well preserved and offers an unparalleled look back in history.
Lacock – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The medieval village of Lacock in Wiltshire, with its timber-framed cottages and stunning abbey, has to be one of the prettiest villages in England. Wander through the streets and you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled upon a film set. The beautifully preserved stone cottages look like they belong in another age. There are no television aerials or overhead cables to spoil its old-world look.
Lacock Abbey is equally wonderful, boasting some of the finest cloisters in the country. It is these and other rooms that feature prominently in the 2017 Fantastic Beasts film, The Crimes of Grindelwald.
The Lacock Abbey Cloisters is open every day for visitors.
‘Set-jetting’
‘Set-jetting’ is the latest trend, seeing travellers base their holidays around locations that feature in Hollywood movies or binge-worthy Netflix series. Particularly with the rise in popularity of period dramas, the UK is used frequently as the backdrop to big screen productions.
Exploring the history and heritage of England and beyond can take you to rugged coastlines, magnificent castles and wild moorlands. If you’re considering ‘set-jetting’, we recommend choosing your point of interest from the movie or television set and building your holiday outwards from there.
There is often plenty of countryside and other attractions close by to combine with the set location. Many cities such as Bath offer quick film location guided tours that you can fit in around your schedule and enjoy as part of your holiday.
Equally here at Active England our walking tours of the Cotswolds take you to some iconic places such as Blenheim Palace, whilst showing you the beauty of the Cotswold area by foot or bike.
That wraps our short guide to film and television locations in the Cotswolds. If you’ve got a favourite to share, tell us in the comments below.
