Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey) v0.1
Highclere Castle is a Grade I listed country house built in 1679 and largely renovated in the 1840s, with a park designed by Capability Brown in the 18th century. The 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) estate is in Hampshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Newbury, Berkshire and 9.5 miles (15 km) north of Andover, Hampshire. It is the country seat of the Earls of Carnarvon, a branch of the Anglo-Welsh Herbert family.
Highclere Castle has been used as a filming location for several films and television series, including 1990s comedy series Jeeves and Wooster, and achieved international fame as the main location for the historical drama series Downton Abbey (2010–15) and the 2019 film based on it.
The house, Egyptian exhibition, and gardens are open to the public for self-guided tours during the summer months and at other times during the rest of the year, such as Christmas and Easter. The house also holds ticketed events, such as the Battle Proms picnic concert, and special guided tours throughout the year.
The first written records about the estate are dated 749 when an Anglo-Saxon king granted the estate to the Bishops of Winchester.
In the late 14th century the then Bishop of Winchester William of Wykeham built a beautiful medieval palace (bishop’s residence) and gardens in the park. The property was confisacted from the Church of England by King Edward VI in 1551 during the Protestant Reformation.
Originally granted by the king to the Fitzwilliam family, Highclere Castle had several owners during the next 125 years.
The palace was rebuilt as Highclere Place House in 1679 when it was purchased by Sir Robert Sawyer, the Attorney General to Charles II and James II, who was a lawyer, MP, Speaker, and college friend of Samuel Pepys. In 1692, Sawyer bequeathed the mansion at Highclere to his only daughter, Margaret, the first wife of the 8th Earl of Pembroke. Their second son, Robert Sawyer Herbert, inherited Highclere, began its portrait collection and created the garden temples. His nephew and heir Henry Herbert was created Baron Porchester and later Earl of Carnarvon by George III.
The castle was remodelled and largely rebuilt for the third Earl following a design by Sir Charles Barry in 1842–49[21] during his construction of the Houses of Parliament. It is in the Jacobethan style and faced in Bath stone, reflecting the Victorian revival of English architecture of the late 16th century and early 17th century, when Tudor architecture was being challenged by newly arrived Renaissance architecture influences.
Highclere Castle became home to Egyptian artifacts after the 5th Earl, an enthusiastic amateur Egyptologist, sponsored the excavation of nobles’ tombs in Deir el-Bahari (Thebes) in 1907. He later accompanied archaeologist Howard Carter during the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.
During World War II the castle provided a home for dozens of evacuee children. The estate was the location of several crashes of allied aircraft, including a B-17 Flying Fortress parts of which are now in the possession of Highclere.
After major repairs and from 2010, the castle was used as the main filming location for the ITV/PBS drama series Downton Abbey, which brought the castle international fame.
As of late 2012, Lord and Lady Carnarvon said that an increase in the number of paying visitors allowed them to begin major repairs on both Highclere’s turrets and its interior. The family attributed this increase in interest to the on-site filming of Downton Abbey. The family now live in Highclere Castle at various times throughout the year, but return to their cottage when the castle is open to the public.
The castle has been recreated manually from various photos and videos from the internet. It comes with its own lights and POI.
This mod is not intended for sale or resale.
GPS Coordinates: 51.32653977818935, -1.3607089181455387
