A DAY AT DOWNTON.
This is Masterpiece Theatre and welcome to the hit television series Downton Abbey…
Giving you all the snobby vibes
My children and I are huge Downton Abbey fans, or anything masterpiece theatre for that matter. So you know we were totally stoked to find that we could actually visit Highclere Castle.
I became hooked on Downton Abbey mostly from my mother who created monsters out of us not watching anything but PBS in her home. I like to escape inside the British story lines.
I am actually sitting in a little nook situated in a quaint London townhome as I crank out this blog post. So lets get into it..
HIGHCLERE CASTLE
So for the first heartbreak of this blog, there is NO DOWNTON ABBEY. That is only the name of the castle on the show. The castle’s name is Highclere. What’s even more heartbreaking is that the characters and story lines are not real. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the true history and the linage that comes with the castle, but honestly to me it will forever be all things Downton Abbey.
So before we get off into the fantasy of the show lets talk about the castle in real life…
The best thing a girl can have is her facts and receipts..okaayyyy!
So lets drop some on this castle. The first written records of the estate date back to 749 (wowzers) when an Anglo-Saxon King granted the estate to the Bishops of Winchester.
The palace was rebuilt as Highclere Place House in 1679. It was then purchased by the direct ancestors of the current Earl of Carnarvon(the dude who lives there now which also happens to be the Queen’s godson).
In 1842, Sir Charles Barry, (who also designed the Houses of Parliament) transformed Highclere House into the present day Highclere Castle. Thank god for him!
During the First World War, Highclere Castle was converted into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Throughout the Second World War, Highclere Castle was home to children evacuated from London.
There are between 250 and 300 rooms in the Castle. The Queen is a frequent visitor at Highclere. She prepared for her 90th birthday extravaganza on a weekend trip to the castle.
All information was gathered from https://www.highclerecastle.co.uk
Highclere Castle was actually closed for the season, not opening back up until July 2022. However, sometimes they have public opening days at random. We just happened to be in town during the time they were having a county fair on castle grounds. Our Viator trip advisor told us that Highclere was going to open its doors to the public for one day only and sell same day tickets between 9am and 1pm. We immediatley jumped at the chance.
GETTING THERE
Highclere Castle is located in Newbury which is about an hour and half outside of London. We used a company called Viator to book a private day trip to the castle. Viator picked us up at 6:45am in an 8 passenger Mercedes Van. Booking a private car is usually the way to go when traveling with children; there’s plenty of space for their mayhem, control of the A/C, music, and of course space to throw my camera equipment around.
Each time we visit London we are always smack dab in the middle of the city so it was nice to see the countryside on the ride to the castle.
Once we reached castle grounds we were enveloped in to a tunnel of greenery. It was absolutely beautiful. I wasn’t fast enough with my camera to capture the many small cottages on the ride in.
ENTRY
Tickets to visit the Castle & Gardens were :
Adult £20.50
Child£13.00
Family (2 adults,2 children)£57.00
Senior over 60 £19.00
Since there were five of us we got the Family Package and told them my mother was over 60 even though she’s 55. It’s a shame but that’s what we did!
Haters.
There are only 3 entry times at the castle: Morning 10am, Midday 12:30, and Afternoon 2:30.
We opted for morning because of course we are shooting content and the less folks the better!
We arrived at the castle early at 8am and sat in the car until the ticket box opened. A queue started to form around 8:35a as guests were getting dropped off from taxi cabs and driving in themselves.
THE GARDENS
Highclere sits amidst 1000 acres of land. There are many spectacular gardens you can browse and admire .
Jackdaws Castle sits within direct view of the castle and the Temple of Diana over looks the lake.
JACKDAWS CASTLE
Seeing Jackdaws Castle in person is where the entire Downton Abbey experience came alive for me.
If you watch the show you know this is where Lady Edith runs and cries each time she has a melt down. It’s also where her older sister Mary meets her many boyfriends and sneaks kisses.
As though not seeing it in person was enough; I couldn’t resist the itch to actually go inside. The massive structure was literally towering down at me as I stared it face to face. And of course I wanted more, just to be inside.. greedy me.
They had access to it blocked off and stuck a cheeky sign by a bench. And rightfully so! This was built in 1700s, keep your peasant paws off!
LADY MARY’S BENCH
A place where a lot of important conversations took place. Mary’s bench was a hub for power plays and pivotable points in the series.
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English landscape garden style.
these people only wanted the best
THE CASTLE
We were not allowed to film or take pictures once inside of the castle so unfortunately there will be no inside shots in this post. Groups were allowed to enter based on entry times. Once inside there were roped pathways to walk through the castle at your leisure.
The entrance was the exact same one in the show so it was fun to visualize Carson instructing Barrow and the other footmen to grab the guests bags from the carriage.
The entrance had photos of the current lord and lady Caranarvon as well as some old family portraits and a lot of statues.
The guided pathways started at the library, which we got to see the desk of Lordship. Then the drawing room, music room, living room, bedrooms, and ending with the dining room. There were personal photos of the Queen when she was young enjoying her time at the estate.
One thing that stood out to me was in Lady Grantham’s bedroom you could look out and see a pasture of sheep. You can literally sit in the actual bed and see the sheep without actually having to come near the window. It was breathtaking.
Once you finished in the dining room, you walk down a tiny pathway which leads you to the servants quarters. To my surprise there was NO kitchen! (gasp)
The entire show is centered around the kitchen downstairs and we were told that unfortunately that set up is at an actual filming studio. They did however, have the switchboard that you see on the opening credits of the show and I wanted so badly to take a photo of it, but security was beefed up with no photos so I obliged.
OVERALL EXPERIENCE
The entire tour inside took about 20-25 minutes. Some rooms you could enter and some rooms you could not. In my humble opinion, I think they should have showcased a little more just for the show’s sake; but I also understand this is where someone actually lives so I get not wanting people in your private space.
We were there a total of 2 hours and that included the waiting time for the ticket box to open. I don’t honestly see how you could spend more than 1.5 hours there unless you are engaged in an activity. It was more of a sightseeing venture to snap a couple photos and get on to the next thing.
Mother Daughter Experience for sure!
Chloe falls asleep to an episode of Downton Abbey every night before bed. Whenever we hear the theme music we already know its lights out for her!
To see my daughter’s excitement here at this castle meant the most to me. Her knowing where all the scenes happened and seeing the bedrooms made me smile within my heart. When we walked down the staircase she asked me where the dog was and I was like “Yasss, girl Yass” in my head. It was a nice bonding moment for her and I.
Sharing the experience with my family was priceless
My mother enjoyed it as well. My cousin could actually care less lol, but she did want to see how dusty the furniture was inside and was tempted to pull a curtain or two to knock the dust off. We talked about the experience the whole ride home.
Leaving the estate you get to see all of the wildlife that Highclere has to offer. We passed plenty of birds, sitting ducks, horse stables and SHEEP! lots of sheep!
Our driver was so kind to pull over and let me capture some photos.
Downton Abby fan or not, I hope you enjoyed the blog post. I’ll be trying to explore more outside of London on my trips back to the UK. As always, I’ll take you with me when I do.
Thanks so much for reading.
-J.