I’m a little behind on writing, as my mom was here and we were travelling around Oxford, London, and Rome. Prior to her visit, I went to Newbury, England for a few days. This is the town that is closest to Highclere Castle, famous for its appearance in Downton Abbey.
This was a really exciting trip for me because, as you probably know (hence the blog name), I am obsessed with Downton. Newbury itself is a pretty good sized town and I stayed at an Airbnb with a really nice couple- they even gave me a ride to the train station and into town one day.
The castle itself is difficult to get to and unless you have a car or are on a bus tour, you have to take a taxi. Luckily I was able to find some fellow college-aged Americans that let me join their taxi back to Newbury and they didn’t make me pay.
My initial reaction was that the castle looked smaller than I expected, but don’t get me wrong, it is still a rather large building. I got there around 11 and my ticket didn’t get me in until noon, so I started by going to the exhibit they had and realized it was a lot bigger than I expected, so I opted for getting food instead. I got tea and a scone from the cafe because what else would you eat at Downton?
After this I queued to go inside. The focus is primarily on Highclere Castle and it’s history, not Downton. However, all the rooms that were used in filming were labeled and had pictures from filming. Not all the rooms were used, so I also got to see multiple other rooms, which were obviously decorated similarly and looked like they could have been from the show. Aside from the chairs and couches, the rooms looked just like I remembered. When I came back to Oxford, I stayed with a friend for a night and she had never seen Downton, so we watched it. It was really neat to rewatch the show and see the rooms I had been standing in a couple of days before.
Also, pictures inside were not allowed, but here are some anyways.
There were carolers singing Christmas songs in the main foyer, which was nice to hear as I walked around. There was also a very tall, well decorated Christmas tree.
One of my favorite parts was walking down the main staircase. It felt like I was Lady Mary in the show, which sounds super cheesy, but I enjoyed it. I also walked up the stairs and then got yelled at by an old lady because apparently the house is a “one-way system.”
The house ends with a path to the exhibit, which is about the history of Highclere. The 5th Earl (George Herbert) was actually part of the team that discovered King Tut’s tomb, so there were lots of relics from previous archeological digs and replicas of the more important relics that are in Cairo from King Tut’s tomb. I had no idea about this connection, so this was a really interesting exhibit to see.
There were also some parallels between Highclere and Downton. For example, both were used as hospitals during World War I. The 5th Earl was involved in a bad car crash that nearly killed him and he married an American women for money in the interest of the estate (if you’ve seen the show you’ll understand these references).
I had an additional day in Newbury, which I spent shopping around, getting some Mudhouse-quality chai tea, and walking to Donnington Castle. Donnington is just some castle ruins located on the edge of town, but it was a semi-nice day (for England) and I didn’t have anything else to do. The sun actually came out while I was sitting by the ruins and it was a beautiful view.
My next adventure was showing my mom around Oxford, a trip to London, and the most-exciting part- Rome, including not one, but two sightings of the Pope.
Just a Lady Mary trying to fit in at Oxford 