The birds are singing, lambs are playing in the fields and the big yellow thing in the sky has actually deigned to put in an appearance. I think spring might actually be here, gasp! To celebrate that very thing, my mum and I went for a day out at the beautiful Harewood House in West Yorkshire.
Harewood House has always been one of my favourite places. When I was little, I loved playing on the amazing play equipment (seriously awesome slides!) As a slightly more grown up person (well, in theory) the stunning house and grounds at Harewood have captured my imagination. Daydreaming about what it must be like to live in such a place helped inspired my debut novel, Who Does He Think He Is? Unfortunately for my heroine Lady Aurelia, her estate Leydale Park couldn’t be more different from Harewood House, as it’s more of a pile in a state, than stately pile! But Harewood House and my fictional Leydale Park do have something in common in that they are both used as TV and movie locations.
Harewood House has most recently graced our screens as one of the major locations for the ITV drama series, Victoria. Queen Victoria herself visited Harewood House in 1835, although she was just a princess at that time, so it seems appropriate that the house is featured as a double for Buckingham Palace in the TV series about her life.
I was delighted to discover on my visit that the house is hosting an exhibition inspired by Victoria. There’s lots to learn about life at Harewood during the Victorian era, but also on display are costumes from the Victoria TV series, along with a behind the scenes look at the filming of the show. The costumes are works of art in themselves, and they look very at home in the ornate surroundings of Harewood’s State Rooms.
Another claim to fame for Harewood House is that it has played host to the delectable Mr Darcy not once, but twice. It featured as Pemberley in ITV’s series Lost In Austen (all about a 21st century woman who gets whisked back in time and meets Mr Darcy – lucky her!) and scenes for the BBC murder mystery series based on PD James’ book Death Comes to Pemberley were also filmed there. As you can imagine, my mum and I had great fun playing spot the location on our visit!
We also enjoyed exploring Harewood House’s beautiful gardens and parkland. They were designed by Capability Brown and I confess I filled quite a bit of my camera roll with snaps of the myriad pretty flowers.
No day out would be complete without a spot of cake, and I’m pleased to report that Harewood’s lemon drizzle is particularly scrumptious! All in all, we had a lovely visit, and I’d definitely recommend it as a great trip out for everyone.
Emily Kerr writes 
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