Home of Downton Abbey

Home of Downton Abbey the hugely successful television series, is really called Highclere Castle.
I am a big fan on Downton Abbey and like a lot of people I was interested to see where it was filmed.

Highclere does not have many open days and sadly I missed out on tickets for any of those days this year, which is a shame. However, my son Matthew and my daughter in law Karen was lucky enough to get those special tickets.

Karen and Matthew

The land that Highclere stands on has people living on it for around 1300 years.
It was not until Georgian and Victorian times that major work was carried out by the Carnarvon family, and the old house on the land was converted to a classical mansion.
In 1836 the Third Earl of Carnarvon arranged to bring Sir Charles Barry to make his home into the wonderful mansion that the whole world would be impressed with.

Over the years Highclere Castle epitomised the glamour of the Edwardian times. During the first world war, Almina the 5th countess of carmarvon transformed the castle into a hospital and looked after soldiers that were brought from Flanders in 1914.

The Castle did return to a family home and in 1922 the 5th Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter found the tomb of Tutankhamun It continued to pass from son to son and also became home to evacuee children in the second world war.
The current 8th Earl and Countess live partly in the castle and partly nearby but make sure they are involved with its care and upkeep.

8th Earl and Countess

So back to Matthew and Karen! Like me Karen loves Downton Abbey and to top that off she is a teacher of History. I think they loved walking through the house and seeing some of the beautiful rooms.

Not only does it have fantastic rooms it also have fantastic gardens . Matthew and Karen had a rather rainy day but they said it was so beautiful to walk through the and see the wonderful view.

Matthew

I have to say I was dead jealous they got to go, but I am buying my tickets early next year lol.

Karen

What was lovely was Matthew and Karen bought me a gift back from the Castle. It is a pack of wild flower seeds which have been made up to attract butterflies, bees and birds. So I am going to have a little bit of Highclere in my own garden, which is so fab.

So I hope you enjoyed this whistle stop tour of Highclere Castle and if you do watch Downton you will know a little history of the home of the series.

www.highclerecastle.co.uk