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TELEVISION FAME

The family picnicking at ‘Downton Place’.

Eryholme appeared in Downton Abbey in Series 3, Episode 3.  Robert had invested very badly and wiped out Cora’s fortune, so the family discussed  where to live if Robert had to sell Downton Abbey.  A manor house in Eryholme was suggested, which Robert had inherited from a great-grandmother.  It was described as being on the border with Durham.  Violet remembered her husband hunting there and they decided to have a picnic lunch at the house  to view it.  Cora suggested it be called Downton Place, but Violet concluded that it was nice as a retreat from the world but not really good for anything else. What it needed was good manners and some decent conversation.  In the event Matthew came to the rescue and the Downton Abbey house and estate were saved.

This is of course entirely fictional and was not even filmed in Eryholme, though Julian Fellowes, the author of Downton Abbey, had family links with Neasham and Eryholme.  However, it certainly put the village on the map and has at times attracted Downton fans.