A tour of the village of Bampton lead by Duluth's beloved newscaster, Dennis Anderson, has been advertised on our local PBS station. And as tempting as that sounds, I do not need to partake in that expedition as I was able to visit Bampton, Oxfordshire on my own during spring break last year.
Having missed the sage guidance of the Walter Cronkite of Duluth, I am sure my overview of the quaint, English village will be lacking informative depth. But it is my hope that you enjoy the pictures (again, brace yourself, for there are gobs of them!) and possibly consider adding this destination to your journey should you travel to England.
Thoughts from this moment: "I made it! Yes! Downton Village! That building kinda looks just like that building in that one scene. I think?...er...maybe I've seen that before...okay, nope. None of this looks familiar. I guess I'll just park at that post office and walk around a bit."
"Very nice houses, but I don't recognise any of these from Downton."
"Is this a ghost town. Where are all the people?"
Around this point, I finally saw a woman working on her garden and asked if I was going in the right direction. She was very proud of Downton Abbey and seemed sincerely honoured that someone would want to visit her village. Thankfully she advised me to turn around and assured me that I would see something familiar if I walked the other way.
For those of you who watch Downton, these pictures should start to look familiar.
Definitely familiar! This is the location of Cottage Hospital.
Inside was a little souvenir shop. I ended up buying these darling cards and a book that the locals made about Downton being filmed in their village. This day was very reminiscent of the day I forced my family to stop in Scranton.
You can see this roof really well in Season 2. Wow. My life is so sad.
Well, it amazed me to learn that so many of the scenes in Downton Village are all filmed in the same roundabout. It's such a small area, but it's filmed from so many angles that it seems like they are running all over England.
Here's the church where certain members of the Crawley family may or may not have been married.
Between the Cottage Hospital and St. Mary's Church, we find Crawley House.
In this courtyard, Mrs. Hughes meets up with her inquiring beau, Mary walks alongside Matthew, and Mr. Moseley "renews the pavement." The Helter Skelter and village fair are also located in this very spot during Season 1.
Here's the nice view of the gutters that I know you've been hoping to see.
You cannot stand where the Crawley Sisters stood and not pretend you are one of them.
The doors to the church were open, so I explored. There were women setting up for a ladies luncheon. They invited me to it and to this day I regret not taking them up on that offer.
A very happy tourist no longer pretending to be a Crawley Sister.
It's absolutely impossible to watch Downton now without blurting out, "I've walked through the same graveyard as the Dowager Countess."
I wish those cars hadn't been in the shot...
I miss seeing trees like this. "I love trees."
There you have it. More pictures than you could ever want to see of an English village. If, for some ridiculous reason these did not satisfy, go ahead and sign up for the tour with Dennis Anderson.
Until next time,
Goodnight and be kind.
