Our village is the real-life Downton Abbey – tourists are ruining our lives as they peer through our windows
LOCALS in the real-life Downton Abbey have slammed tourists for ruining their lives – peering through windows and over-running their village.
The tiny village of Bampton in Oxfordshire features in the six seasons and one film for the hit TV drama.
But now, eight years after its last episode was screened, the cast of characters have been replaced by coach loads of tourists who peer into the lives of the real villagers.
One photograph posted online shows two women holding their phones up to the window of a villager.
“I get fed up with the Downton Abbey lot,” said one 61-year-old living on Church View, the road where Downton’s Cottage Hospital and Mrs Crawley’s house were based.
“They are a pain, walking around with their head-sets on and peeping into your windows. They make me feel like I am living in a zoo.
“They just have no concept that actual people live here.”
Bampton, a village of 2,500 people, boasts two coffee shops, a butcher, a deli, a charity shop, an art gallery, antique store and garden centre.
Those living there tell horror stories selfie-sticks emerging at bedroom windows, tourists wandering into back gardens and coaches blocking up the narrow streets.
The owner of the manor house where Downton’s Mrs Crawley lived, rolls her eyes at the mention of the series and describes it as a “very mixed blessing”.
Her neighbour, Manja Uglow, 50, said: “We have been in Bampton for 18 years. We chose it because it was really lovely and quiet. Now you can have several tour groups, so hundreds of people, all descend at once.
“And they are sometimes led by guides with megaphones telling them all where to go and what to see.
“We had to put up automatic gates in front of the drive because people kept wandering in. Now they put their selfie-sticks over the wall to take photos.
“They think it is a movie set. I don’t think anyone told them these were private homes with real people living in them. Now we are all forced to live behind gates.”
BUSINESS IS BOOMING
But there are advantages. Last year the upper room of the Old Grammar School, founded during the rule of Oliver Cromwell, was beautifully restored for the first time since 1960.
It is now in near constant use hosting talks and workshops, creative writing courses and craft therapies.
It was paid for with a £70,000 fundraising drive, encouraged by the actor Hugh Bonneville who made a video about it.
Lu Waywell, 30, an actress and body piercer, said: “Honestly, I think the Downton connection is great. What else would bring people to Bampton? Unless you are buying a second home or have a trust fund to spend.
“I love seeing Bampton on the TV and trying to spot places you know so well. It’s incredible that what are depicted as servant quarters are now million pound homes.”
Another fan of the show, a 37-year-old mum pushing her pram towards the St Mary the Virgin Church – which was St Michael and All Angels in the series – said: “I don’t mind the tourists at all. I come from a seaside town which depends on tourism.
“The businesses here, the new coffee shop and restaurant, will need more than just local trade to keep them alive.
“I don’t live in the centre of the village that gets the crowds but I can imagine that it can be invasive.”
Helene Grygar, 79, lives on Church View, the street of the Cotswold wonder which saw most of the filming.
“I can’t say too much,” she said, “because my last job was sorting out film locations for the BBC.
“I can live with it but I know it has upset a lot of people. They congregate in the middle of the road and just forget it is an actual place.
“I actually invited one American woman in to look at my cottage. She’d never seen anything like it and kept saying, ‘how lovely’ all time.
“Some of them ask where the big house is and are disappointed when they are told it is Highclere Castle, which is miles away from here.”
Despite the influx of visitors, some doubt much money has been brought into the area.
Tourists spend just 30 minutes to an hour concentrated around the church and the houses featured in the series.
Jean Gray, 69, a church volunteer, said: “We all loved it when they were filming but now, well I don’t mind it that much. But you’d think the church would do better considering the number of visitors.
“You’d think they would drop a couple of quid in church funds but they don’t really. They pay all their money to the tour guide and that’s it. Maybe they don’t have cash.”
Her son, Tom Gray, 41, a care home worker, added: “Sometimes they just breeze into the church during a service and leave in the middle of a sermon. Coach times and church times don’t always mix.”
Jenny Chaundy, 65, is in charge of Bampton’s Community Archive – part of the library in the Old Grammar School building.
The gift shop, which is booming, is decked out in historical and Downton Abbey-related memorabilia.
“We were used as the Cottage hospital in the series,” she said. “It has brought change to the village which is generally positive with reservations.
“Before our visitors were mostly from the UK visiting the Cotswolds, now they come from all over the world.
“Some elements of those that come have no respect for residents or their properties and it can be very intrusive for people who live nearby.
“We have had to establish relations with all the coach companies to mitigate this. We got them to park their coaches on the Rec up the road rather than blocking up the streets. The issues are getting less.
“It is a lovely village with so much going on. We have 80 volunteers here and with the nearby estate built recently there are plenty of young families so there’s a great mix.”
It comes after it was revealed Downton Abbey is set for a big return eight years after it ended.