Castle Howard: Netflix show Bridgerton filmed at 300-year stately home sparks huge surge in young people visiting its website with numbers up more than 3,000 per cent

In August 2019 the Netflix team began filming the first series of the popular regency drama Bridgerton as the Duke of Hastings and Daphne’s home Clyvedon Castle.

During that month a lot of events took place at Castle Howard that saw a boost in visitors such as a four-day country fair called BBC Countryfile Live that attracted 30,000 people per day and Ellie Goulding’s wedding reception which was a star-studded event.

It was the Bridgerton filming that increased the number of new online visitors; young people aged between 18 and 24 who clicked onto the Castle Howard website soared by 3,408 per cent since the series aired in 2020.

“Screen tourism is a factor for visitors when they are planning days out, which has informed our programming,” said Abbigail Ollive, the visitor attraction director at Castle Howard.

“In 2022 we curated an exhibition, ‘From Brideshead to Bridgerton’, celebrating the starring role Castle Howard has played in numerous television series and films by giving the opportunity for visitors to view costumes, props, and locations.

“Our recent Bridgerton event days in May and June were more interactive experiences, with dress up stations, live music, and behind-the-scenes tours. Both events attracted new visitors who might not have previously considered visiting Castle Howard, and we have seen an increase in our visitor numbers as a result.”

The filming took place during Castle Howard’s busiest month of the year and they weren’t expecting it to be as popular.

“The enquiry came about because the director Julie-Ann Robinson had been [to Castle Howard] as a visitor and had it in her mind as the location where she imagined the Duke of Hastings would reside,” Ms Ollive said.

“It was a brand new Netflix drama, we had no idea that it would become a worldwide hit. We knew it was fairly big, it had a crew of about 120 people, so we knew it was a substantial thing to take on.

“We eventually agreed that we would try and pull it off in August in our busiest month of the year.

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“What a great decision that was for Castle Howard, it would have been really easy at that moment to say ‘no, we’re too busy’, which a more sensible person might well have done.”

They used the house entrance for filming the scene where Daphne Bridgerton and the Duke of Hastings arrived in their horse and carriage at the estate.

“You’ll recognise the entrance to Castle Howard,” Ms Ollive said.

“This is the entrance where in regency times horse and carriages would have swept around and dropped guests off.

“That’s the scene you see in Bridgerton; when Daphne and the Duke first arrive at the Duke of Hastings home and enter into the castle.”

The bedroom where Daphne and the Duke of Hastings spent most of their time during the first series was filmed in The Archbishop’s Bedroom at Castle Howard.

“When filming in a real life historic location, a lot of things are irreplaceable so it’s our duty of care to protect [them],” Ms Ollive said.

“This bed saw a lot of action where the Duke and Daphne spent a lot of time filming in this room. When Bridgerton was pitched to us, I had to go through with the location manager what they wanted to do, what they wanted to film.

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“I also thought I’d better do my homework and I read the [script] and it became apparent that what they wanted to do at Castle Howard was have sex everywhere. In terms of content, will that be on brand? Which we decided was ok but then we get into the more practical stuff, if you want to do that on our 18th century bed how do we make that work whilst still protecting [its history].

“What they decided to do was take the mattress off and they fit out this bed with a series of different mattresses for the different scenes that were being shot which was really interesting to see.”

When working with the Netflix team Ms Ollive noticed that they had ‘pioneered’ the role of intimacy co-ordinator during the filming of Bridgerton.

“That wasn’t really a role even six years ago or so and the intimacy coordinator is responsible for the welfare of the actors,” she said.

“They will talk through and plot out everything that is going to be asked of the actors to do, this is especially in any scenes that involve nudity or sex scenes.

“It’s to make sure that those actors feel comfortable and confident with what they are being asked to do and have the chance and space to talk about that.

“I think in times gone by perhaps directors might have gotten carried away or asked [actors to do something in the moment], so it’s been really fantastic to see that role evolve.”

Other filming locations at Castle Howard included the Walled Garden.

It was used for two scenes; in episode one Daphne punches a potential suitor Nigel and knocks him out and the other scene is where Daphne is picking bunches of lavender to take to the estate village filmed at Coneysthorpe.

“The props and set team had to come a few weeks for the filming to plant lavender plants in our kitchen garden because it wasn’t something we had growing,” Ms Ollive said.

“Then our gardens team were in charge of making sure it lived long enough and grew well for Daphne to pick.

“In Coneysthorpe, the villagers living there got involved, so a lot of them were extras in the scene. So rather than hire extras and bring them all up north to Castle Howard from filming they’ve been doing down in Bath or elsewhere, a lot of the villagers got to be in Bridgerton.

“It’s really nice to spot familiar faces when we watch it. There's a lovely 95-year-old villager from Coneysthorpe who makes it in one of the scenes.”

There were many other films and TV shows that prominently featured Castle Howard including Lady L in 1965, Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon in 1975 and more famously Brideshead Revisited in 1981.

More recently, the BBC series Death Comes to Pemberley, ITV film Victoria (2015), the TV series Anne Boleyn (2021), and an Arctic Monkeys music video were filmed at Castle Howard.

As a result of Bridgerton’s success, the stately home was used to film an American reality TV show called The Courtship that Ms Ollive described as ‘Love Island with a regency twist’.