Hello and welcome to 2017! I hope you enjoyed Christmas and FINALLY seeing a new Doctor Who episode – The Return of Doctor Mysterio (2016)! I really liked it, it is one of my favourite Christmas specials ever. It felt really different and I was so pleased that Nardole was revealed as a new companion as I have wanted the Doctor to have another non-human companion for a very long time. I am looking forward to Series 10 and seeing how the Doctor, Nardole and Bill get along. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think about the Christmas special, I would love to hear what other people think.
This time on Project Indigo we are visiting Dyrham Park in Gloucestershire, filming location for The Night Terrors (2011) which was an Eleventh Doctor episode. In this episode the Doctor, Amy and Rory visit a little boy in London who is so scared of his wardrobe that his fear is transmitted throughout the universe. This mission to help the child leads them to become trapped in a Dolls House where they must fight peg-dolls that would scare anyone silly!
Dyrham Park is a National Trust property near Bath. This country house was built in the late 17th Century for a politician named William Blathwayt who received the land through marriage to Mary Wynter. He is very well known in America as he was a key figure in the administration of the American Colonies and he also served as Secretary of War under James II and William III.
This house was chosen as the filming location as it looks like it would make a perfect Dolls House. I visited at Christmas time when the weather was grey but dry. First I explored the grounds which are famous for being home to a herd of fallow deer. The name Dyrham comes the Anglo-Saxon word ‘dirham’ which means ‘enclosure for deer’. The deer park covers 270 acres!
The gardens are in the middle of a project to recreate the look of the 17th Century. I found a gate which took me to the Lost Terraces which are still undergoing work to restore them. I walked in the footsteps of William Blathwayt which have just been uncovered and looked down upon St Peter’s Church where he got married. It felt very tranquil in the terraces and I saw a lot of wild-life including a friendly robin, squirrels and a bird of prey.
Afterwards I went into the house which was very imposing. I recognised the wooden panelled walls from The Night Terrors but in the episode all the furniture had been removed for filming and replaced by Dolls House furniture, including a wooden frying pan. Luckily there were no peg-dolls there so I was not scared.
I could see lots of worldwide treasures from a time of exploration including Dutch items such as blue and white Delftware Pottery and a still-life by Cornelis De Heem. There was also a famous Trompe L’oeil by Samuel Van Hoogstraten, a picture which messes with your mind. Trompe L’oeil is French for ‘deceive the eye’ and creates a 3D illusion. In the 17th Century a painting like this was as new and exciting to people as a trailer for the new Nintendo Switch now!
On the way out I was offered some hot chocolate made using a 17th Century recipe. For me it felt more like a punishment than a treat – it was very, very spicy!
It is not just Doctor Who that has been filmed at Dyrham Park – in the New Year some of the new series of ‘Poldark’ was filmed there too! Other things filmed at Dyrham include the film The Remains of the Day (1993) and the original series of Poldark from the 1970s.
I had a fantastic day at Dyrham Park and I would recommend anybody to check it out – even better if you are a Pokemon Go player because it is chock full Omanytes and lots of long walks to help hatch your eggs. 🙂 Thank you for reading and sorry it has been so long since I have written a post, now I am at Senior School I have lots of homework and can’t blog as much as I used to BUT Project Indigo is still going strong and I will try my best to get about in my TARDIS as much as I can. ALLONS-Y!
Project Indigo 