Summary

A Grade I listed Elizabethan prodigy house near Ripon in North Yorkshire, built in 1598 to 1611 with stone from adjacent Fountains Abbey, located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Studley Royal Park, managed by the National Trust, used as a filming location for The Secret Garden (1993) and Gunpowder (BBC One, 2017).

About this location

Fountains Hall stands within the Studley Royal Park World Heritage Site near Ripon in North Yorkshire, adjacent to the ruins of Fountains Abbey. The house was built between 1598 and 1611 by Stephen Proctor, partly using stone robbed from the nearby Cistercian abbey ruins, which had been dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539. It is an example of a late Elizabethan prodigy house — possibly influenced by the work of Robert Smythson — with a tall, elaborately fenestrated facade of considerable ambition for its date. A balcony survives on the exterior, though the staircase serving it has been deemed unsafe for public access. In July 1604, the young Prince Charles stopped at Fountains Hall while travelling from Dunfermline to London.

After Proctor’s death in 1619, the hall passed through several hands before being acquired by William Aislabie of the neighbouring Studley Royal estate in the late 18th century. The Aislabies’ primary seat was Studley Royal, and Fountains Hall became effectively redundant — it was leased to tenants and at times used for farm storage. The hall was renovated and modernised between 1928 and 1931 and used as a guest house for the Duke and Duchess of York. During the Second World War, the stable block and courtyard housed Queen Ethelburga’s School, evacuated from Harrogate. Fountains Hall and the Studley Royal estate were transferred to the National Trust and are now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site that includes Fountains Abbey and the 18th-century water garden.

The Secret Garden (1993, directed by Agnieszka Holland, starring Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, and Andrew Knott, adapted from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel) filmed exterior sequences at Fountains Hall. Gunpowder (BBC One, 2017, written by Kit Harington and Ronan Bennett, directed by J Blakeson, about the Gunpowder Plot of 1605) used Fountains Hall for the outdoor sequences depicting the 1603 raid on a Catholic household — though the scene was labeled “Baddesley Clinton” on screen, Fountains Hall was the location actually used for filming.