Film & TV Locations

Film & TV locations abound in the North of England (the area in which we live). This page contains images from some popular television programmes and films. Many productions are shot in a variety of locations, so this is not a definitive list !

Click on any of the photographs below to enlarge them,
or 'mouse over' them for more information

Holmfirth - Location for Last of the Summer Wine

Sid & Ivy's cafe in the town centre of Holmfirth
The Wrinkled Stocking Tea Rooms - next to Nora Batty's house
Nora Batty's house. Compo lived below, in the basement flat
The Moonraker - floating tea room on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal at Slaithwaite

Sid's cafe

The Wrinkled Stocking tea rooms

Nora Batty's house

The canal at Slaithwaite

Last of the Summer Wine was first broadcast on BBC television in January 1973, making it Britain's longest running TV comedy series. Every single episode has been written by Roy Clarke. The male characters are all in their 'twilight years' but act as if in their second childhood! Bill Owen (who played Compo) made the area his second home. He died in July 1999 and is buried nearby in the village of Upperthong.

Many of the canal scenes in Last of the Summer Wine were filmed at Slaithwaite, which is frequently used as a location in ITV's 'Where the Heart Is'. Slaithwaite features in the canal section of this web site. Bamforths produced their saucy seaside postcards of nagging (buxom) wives and their (scrawny) hen pecked husbands at Holmfirth. Bamforths were also producers of 'Magic Lantern' slide shows and silent films.


Goathland - 'Heartbeat'

The Aidensfield Stores retains its 'stage name' throughout the year.
Bernie's garage is opposite the Goathland Hotel (Aidensfield Arms)
Interior shots of the The Aidensfield Arms are now filmed in studios
The village green, memorial and signpost often appear 'in camera'.

Aidensfield Stores

Bernie Scripps' Garage

Aidensfield Arms + TV crew and actors

Goathland's village green

Heartbeat, from Yorkshire TV, is set in the 1960s, and features the community of Aidensfield and its police force. The village of Goathland is in the North York Moors National Park and features as the village of Aidensfield. The Aidensfield Stores are used as the Post Office, and the Goathland Hotel features as the Aidensfield Arms. If you're lucky, as we were, then it's possible to visit Goathland and see them filming (picture 3). Goathland's railway station and the preserved North Yorkshire Moors Railway also appear in the series. (Note:- Goathland station appears as Hogsmeade station in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone).

Aidensfield police house is actually in Askwith and the police station is 60 miles away, in Otley! (Just like it would be if the series was representative of life now!) The fishing port of Whitby is often used as a location. A page about Whitby appears in the Out and About section of this website.


Downham - 'Whistle Down the Wind' & 'Born & Bred'

Downham village. No TV aerials or 'phone wires and, on this occasion, no ducks!
Worsaw End Farm is close to Downham and is the farm used in Whistle Down the Wind
Assheton Arms (Signalman's Arms in TV's Born & Bred) is opposite the Parish Church
Damens station appears as Ormston in Born & Bred and is 20 miles from Downham

Downham village

Worsaw End Farm

Assheton Arms

Damens station

Downham village in Lancashire is a film maker's dream. It has no TV aerials, no intrusive overhead cables, no double yellow lines, but lots of photogenic ducks! The Assheton family have been lords of the manor since 1558 and they still ensure that Downham retains an air of tranquility. Downham was used as a location in the 1961 film Whistle Down the Wind, starring Alan Bates and Hayley Mills. The film tells how three children assist an escaped convict they find in their barn, convinced that he is Jesus. Local children starred in the film. The farm used in Whistle Down the Wind was Worsaw End Farm (picture 2 above).

Pictures 3 and 4 are locations for the BBC's comedy drama Born & Bred. This is another nostalgic series, with predictable story lines. It's 'easy watching' TV, in the same mould as Heartbeat, Monarch Of The Glen, Where the Heart is and Ballykissangel. Downham's village pub, the Assheton Arms features in the programme as The Signalman's Arms. Damens railway station ( Britain's smallest) is 20 miles from Downham and is seen as Ormston in the TV series.


Wharfedale - 'Calendar Girls'

Wharefdale, with Kilnsey Crag in the middle distance
Burnsall village is the location for the village show in Calendar Girls
Kilnsey Crag -  popular with rock climbers because of its overhang.
Kettlewell is used as 'Knapely'. Scarecrow competitions are held here each year.

Wharfedale

Burnsall

Kilnsey Crag

Kettlewell

Calendar Girls (released 2003) stars Helen Mirren, Julie Walters and John Alderton. The film was inspired by the true story of eleven ladies from Rylstone Women's Institute in North Yorkshire. They decide on ways to raise funds for leukaemia research in support of Angela Baker's husband John, who is suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. By producing a calendar of themselves in the nude they hope to sell a few hundred copies, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Burnsall was used as the location for the annual village show, although it's referred to in the film as 'Kilnsey Show'. The Tennants Arms at Kilnsey was the public house where the men awaited the production of the calendar and where they held the press conference. Kettlewell was used as the fictional village of Knapely. Other locations used in the film were Settle (where I was born), also Skipton and Ilkley.


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