Photos: Wolf Hall filming locations

We look at some of the filming locations of BBC Two’s Wolf Hall…

Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall on BBC Two is so expertly acted, beautifully filmed and with such impressive costumes that it’s easy to forget it’s just a dramatisation. But many of the buildings shown in the programme, from Greenwich Palace to Cromwell’s home in Putney, are actually represented by various historic homes and palaces across the country, including several National Trust properties. Here are some of the filming locations you can visit.

Montacute House

Used to represent Greenwich Palace in BBC Two’s Wolf Hall, Montacute House is actually an Elizabethan National Trust mansion in Montacute village, south Somerset. Greenwich Palace served as Henry VIII‘s main London seat during his reign and Montacute’s grand exterior makes for an impressive backdrop for the drama’s important scenes.

Gloucester Cathedral

Scenes for Wolf Hall were also shot in the Cloister Garth and the Nave of Gloucester Cathedral, an architectural masterpiece that is nearly 1,000 years old.

Lacock Abbey

The setting for Wolf Hall itself is in real-life Lacock Abbey, in Wiltshire. Following the dissolution of the monasteries, King Henry VIII sold it to Sir William Sharington, one of his courtiers, who converted it into a house.

Chastleton House

This National Trust property in Oxfordshire is a Jacobean country house in Wolf Hall, its small stone courtyard is the location for dramatic scenes from Cromwell’s childhood in Putney.

Great Chalfield Manor and House

In Wolf Hall, the moated Great Chalfield Manor and House in Wiltshire represents Austin Friars, the Augustinian friary in the City of London that served as the home of Thomas Cromwell.

Barrington Court

Representing York Place/Whitehall, the home of Cardinal Wolsey, in Wolf Hall, the expansive Tudor manor of Barrington Court in Somerset was restored by the Lyle family in the 1920s.

Bristol Cathedral

A few scenes of Wolf Hall were filmed in beautiful Bristol Cathedral, an imposing building founded in 1140.

Winchester Cathedral

Yet another ecclesiastical filming location included in Wolf Hall is Winchester Cathedral, where Mary Tudor was married to Philip of Spain.

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