ONE of West Oxfordshire’s most historic properties is currently playing a starring role in hit television series Wolf Hall.

Discerning television viewers will notice the Jacobean manor Chastleton House, near Chipping Norton, appearing in many scenes in the period drama about the life of Henry VIII’s closest adviser, Thomas Cromwell, currently showing on BBC Two every Wednesday at 9pm.

The house, which dates from the early 1600s and is managed by the National Trust, is the location for the family home of the noble Seymour family, Wolf Hall, Whitehall, and even Putney High Street.

The series is a six-part television adaption of Hilary Mantel’s Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up The Bodies.

House manager Sebastian Conway said filming was helping put the historic mansion on the map.

He said: “The house has been quite prominent in the series so far. It was great, it really was. We’ve had smaller things filmed here before but this is the first time we’ve had something so big being done.

“It went off without a hitch. I would do it again tomorrow.”

Mr Conway said the stand-out moment for him was when the film crews converted the Chastleton stables into Putney High Street, installing fake cobbles and buildings.

He said: “It was amazing, it was absolutely fantastic. They installed fake buildings, and even brought in horses.”

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A location scout visited the property in March last year before a week-long stint of filming in August.

Before the shoot, trust staff had to carefully removed objects and furnishings from each room, then spent a week putting them back afterwards.

Mr Conway said the filming had been good for the property and for West Oxfordshire as a whole.

He said: “In terms of the National Trust, the filming brings in a huge amount of money that goes straight back into being used for conservation projects and and preserving the heritage here.”

There will be a small exhibition on the filming in the stables at Chastleton when the house reopens to the public for the season on March 4.

The BBC said in a statement: “Chastleton House, Oxfordshire was built by a rich wool merchant whose descendants later lost their wealth so could not afford to update the original building.

"For that reason Chastleton has remained an exceptionally well-preserved time capsule. Chastleton’s small stone courtyard provided the location for the dramatic scenes from Cromwell’s miserable childhood in Putney, while interiors represent Wolf Hall, the Seymour family seat and the place where Jane Seymour first catches Henry’s eye.”

The series features Emmy award winner Damian Lewis as Henry VIII and Claire Foy as the calculating and ambitious Anne Boleyn.

Filming also took place at Broughton Castle, near Banbury, in July.

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