ALL CREAURES GREAT AND SMALL
The new series of this popular series was filmed in various locations throughout Yorkshire, but the veterinary surgery was in fact filmed two doors away from Southey Cottage at Manor Mews. Fake cardboard pillars and railings were installed, and shrubs were planted to give it a more rustic feel.
The Devonshire Inn was rebranded as the Drovers Arms, while the pub interiors were shot at The Green Dragon Inn at Hardraw. The village bakery, Walker’s, was used for the Darrowby Cycles property; a private residence was used for the exterior of Skeldale House. The Stripey Badger book store became the greengrocers G F Endleby, the shoe store Helen Midgley was used for Handleys Booksellers and the Rustic Rabbit gift store became Higgins Bakers.
The home of Mrs Pumphrey, the owner of Tricki-Woo, was filmed at Broughton Hall in Broughton, Craven; the character was based on Marjorie Warner, a client of Alf Wight, who lived at Thorpe House near Thirsk.
Many of the scenes for the series were filmed in a studio. Parts of the first episode (with the waterfall and pool) were filmed at Janet’s Foss near Malham.
The show revolves around a trio of veterinary surgeons working in the Yorkshire Dales beginning in 1937. Siegfried Farnon (described as an “eccentric”) hires James Herriot into his veterinary practice at Skeldale House. Besides Siegfried and James, there is Siegfried’s younger brother, Tristan, and Mrs. Hall, their housekeeper.
Other Filming locations
The first series was filmed largely in the Yorkshire Dales (often around Nidderdale); the village of Grassington in Upper Wharfedale was used for the fictional village of Darrowby. The BBC series, which was broadcast between 1978 and 1990, had been filmed in the northern part of the Dales, (Wensleydale and Swaledale), with the village Askrigg used for the fictional Darrowby.
Other locations included the Barden Bridge at the Bolton Abbey Estate and the Ripon Racecourse. The church featured in the Christmas special is St Wilfrid’s at Burnsall, near Grassington, the crossroads are “on the roads above Pateley Bridge” in Nidderdale and the farm is in Airton.
Keighley & Worth Valley Railway train at Oakworth Station
The steam train in the first series was filmed on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line; Keighley Station stands in for a Glasgow station in the first episode, and Oakworth railway station appears in both the first and second episodes.
