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A British Original:
Discovering Haddersford House and Its Residents
When I ask her about the Darcy look-alike with the teeth, she laughs.
Marie-Anne Baxter, Director of the Haddersford House Costume Drama Sanctuary and Preserve, has known Tom Mercer for over a decade. ”The costume is his original, if modified,” she explains. “The teeth are not. You can blame Colin Firth for those.”
Welcome to the world of the costume drama character.
We Can’t All Be Keira Knightley: What Is a Costume Drama Sanctuary and Preserve?
The costume drama has had a long history in television and movies, and even before, depending on how one defines the term. However, the Costume Drama Character really took off in the era of television. Sydney Davidson, the archivist and historian of Haddersford House, has photos of some of the earliest residents of the Sanctuary. “We found that while this didn’t tend to happen to the named characters, the ones played by actors whose faces and names you knew, and most of the extras were similarly just run-of-the-mill actors, every once in a while there was someone who stuck around. Who seemed to have come into being for the purpose of that costume drama, and then,” they wave a hand to illustrate. “They just stuck around.”
The photo they have laid out in front of me is of the house as it was in 1967, like a photo from a fancy dress party. Of the twenty or so people lined up in two rows, the outfits range from High Middle Ages finery to Austen-era pelisses, to the two modern outfits worn by the pair on the outside edges of the back row. “Our founders,” Davidson says, indicating the pair whose outfits are contemporary to the date on the photograph. Georgina and Robert Hood are recognizable from the portrait that hangs in the hall. “They had already owned this place for decades when this started happening on a larger scale, and they recognized both a need, and an opportunity.”
Davidson pulls up another photograph, this one of a woman with her hair in papillote ringlets that wouldn’t look out of place in the Regency era–but for the fact that she is using an electric curling iron from the mid-1980s to set them. “Sometimes the characters were able to integrate into society. It’s not always such a big jump as you would think. But sometimes not, depending on the person. It just… depends.”
A Short History of the Historical Short (and Long)
Haddersford House is one of the last working sanctuaries for characters from costume dramas in Great Britain. “They used to be all up and down the country. We’re sort of the only ones left standing,” Baxter says. As other houses and assorted sanctuaries closed or combined, Haddersford stepped in to offer a home for those displaced. “We’ve ended up getting characters from all over, even occasionally from the continent.”
This is also why you’ll encounter both Mancunian accents, and riders from even further afield, such as the Scottish contingent.
They partner with other still-existing groups and organizations around the world with a similar mission. One such example here in Britain is The Quarry. Established around the same time as Haddersford House, The Quarry is altogether a much stranger place, according to Samuel Clark, who worked there for a number of years before he relocated here. “Used to be we had rubber aliens and styrofoam rock people, back in the day.” He shrugs. “Less so these days–everything moving to CGI, less of that sort of thing going on. But they still get new people, on the regular.”
Several of the main organizations that Haddersford House partners with are based elsewhere in the world. The Greater Pacific Northwest Home For Characters straddles the United States-Canada border, working in cooperation with both governments. There, the woods and mountains have almost become characters in and of themselves. “They’ve got a bit of a broader range than we have,” Baxter explains. “Less call for the historical costume drama out there, but everything from fairy tales to alien planets in those woods.”
She then lists off a sanctuary in Romania specializing in high fantasy, due to those being filmed more over there, and at least three large ones in various Asian countries. “There’s a whole village in Japan that doubles as a working film set."
From the Royal Crescent to the Scottish Highlands: The British Costume Drama Renaissance
In the last decade or so, there has been a resurgence in exactly the sort of costume drama that Haddersford House has always specialized in. And Haddersford House has been a part of that renaissance.
Baxter explains. “For several years, everyone was interested in crime dramas, murder mysteries, that sort of thing. Those are a lot of fun, don’t get me wrong, I like several of them myself. But generally speaking it’s easier for those folks to integrate into society as a whole. There's an agency in Westminster working with those folks to integrate them. You’d have a real challenge with good queen Chuck,” she jokes, referring to the resident monarch of Haddersford House.
“We’re pretty sure she’s an actual queen of some kind.”
Characters at Haddersford House span the full range of classes, just as they do time periods, from peasants to nobility. “We work with producers, casting agents, location scouts, all sorts of people. It’s where a good part of our funding comes from.”
Some characters spend more time at Haddersford House than others. While some characters are eager to move on out into the world, others prefer to stay at Haddersford House. Tom Mercer is one man who has been resident at Haddersford for twenty years. “I am from an Austen adaptation,” he explains. “Though probably not the one you’re thinking of.”
He does, in fact, bear something of a resemblance to a young Colin Firth, who played Mr. Darcy in the 1995 adaptation of Pride & Prejudice, especially when he removes the false teeth. He laughs, holding them out for my (somewhat squeamish) inspection. “They’re a polymer, made by one of the costumers who came here a few years ago for that piece of cinema about a Holmes girl,” He tells me. “It makes for a bit of a laugh, and that’s why I keep them around. Shock the tourists a little, you know.” Mercer is one of those characters who has settled into life here at Haddersford House on a more permanent basis, working with film crews and location scouts as part of the team here, though he doesn’t live on the property anymore. “I have a very nice semi-detached about twenty minutes from here.”
Of Horses and Women: Daily Life at the Character Sanctuary
Characters will move on to all sorts of careers, thanks to their time at Haddersford House, from farriers to historians. “It’s like working with an immigrant population,” Paige Jenkins explains. She works as the Program Coordinator and Liaison. “After all, the past is just another country. We help find out what they’re interested in, what they’d like to do now that they’re here, get everything like education and their papers sorted--integrate them into modern life.”
Haddersford House has many programs working with the characters: education, recreation, and vocational. “Some things don’t change with time,” Jenkins says. “Like horses. The care and keeping of them has evolved over time, to be certain, but horses really don’t change. That’s why we have everyone from the Highlanders to the Edwardians working with them.”
Some things do change though. “Lots of the women, they’re excited for a chance to have a career of their own, not to have to get married and be a homemaker.” Olivia Grant, the Lady Bentley, is one of those women. Characters all have their histories and backgrounds, but being here has given most of them opportunities they never dreamed of. Grant is in an accelerated course for her A-levels, and intends to read medicine, eventually. "Hopefully at Oxford or Cambridge," she confides. Where she is from, Black women were not yet being awarded degrees at either institution. Now she wants to follow in the footsteps of women such as Lady Ademola. On the other hand, some are excited to do just that: marry and make a home, Jenkins points out. "Especially with things like washing machines and electric cooktops.”
One such woman is Anne Fitzmorris, a relatively recent arrival. “I was so lucky to arrive with my George," she tells me. “Since our arrival here, our affection has only increased.” The arrival of multiple characters from a series with a preexisting connection is unusual, but certainly not unprecedented, Baxter tells me later when I ask.
Anne continues. “They have been ever so kind to us here, and the chance to further my studies and be with my love? My joy and contentment know no bounds.”
George Guest, Anne’s George, echoes his intended’s sentiments. In fact, he exudes a quiet enthusiasm when speaking about most things, including Anne, Haddersford House, and the recent filming project that was unlike any other Haddersford House had seen before.
A Celestial Contrivance: The Partnership with British Airways
Though they have quietly worked for decades to provide both a home for these characters and a resource for costume dramas filmed and set in Britain, it was only recently that the greater public became aware of the work that Haddersford House does.
“We were thrilled to partner with British Airways for their safety video. BA is one of the great British institutions, and they wanted to highlight another one. They chose us.” Baxter explains, exuding a quiet pride.
The unusual nature of the shoot involved not only bringing in the ever-so-familiar–to those who have spent much time at Haddersford House–cameras and boom mics and other filming paraphernalia, but also some slightly more unusual kit. Baxter laughs. “When they asked if they could bring in airplane seats to the drawing room for the filming, I decided why not?”
“It was the first proper filming Anne and George have been a part of,” Jenkins tells me. “A bit different from our usual sort of thing, but I think they had a good time.”
Both of the pair confirm that they did have, in George’s words, a jolly good time indeed.
But it was probably the Queen who had the best time of all. She laughingly refers to our interview as an ‘audience’, and only seems to be partly joking. She is regal, refined, and laughs when I ask her about her experience with the first class seats. “Marvelous technology, those. It will never rival a feather bed for comfort, but I suppose one would be hard-pressed to find such a bed in those flying metal tubes.”
Even harder to find would be seatbelts on a horse. Alaisdair Stewart is tending to his own horse, Princess, one of several who featured in the safety video, when I speak with him. “When they told us what they wanted to do, there was a bit of confusion, but we worked it out in the end,” he tells me in his thick brogue–real, not an affectation for the safety video. “One of my mates, Ian, even joked about putting them on for real, attached to the saddle, like.”
“But I’m not sure even my girl here would put up with such a nonsense notion.” Princess’s soft chuffing as he firmly thumps her side with a pat makes it clear she shares the sentiment.
The Future is in the Past – Or Dressed Like It Anyway
All told, Baxter seems happy with the decision to partner with British Airlines. Not only has it brought attention to this British institution that has been in the background–and the backgrounds of our screens–for decades, it’s brought new interest to the characters and their lives after the camera crews have wrapped and the main actors have gone home.
“We’ve done plenty of filming here over the years, but British Airways was the first to want to highlight Haddersford and her residents as we are, instead of just what fit into their narrative.” Baxter highlights the variety of projects that have used the grounds as a filming location. “People have been researching this phenomenon for decades and they’re no closer to an answer, but Haddersford House is really a family. We come from different places and times, but we’re all one here.”
Haddersford House has seen both an increase in interest and funding since the British Airways safety video aired. “Tourism has increased, most definitely,” Jenkins tells me. “Requests from film crews, location scouts, those we’re always getting, but now just ordinary people who want to know more about their neighbors, who happen to be these characters.” She brings up a photo on her desktop computer of a group of women in hand-knit shawls stroking a horse as one of the Scotsmen from the safety video explains something. “It’s fostering community, and we couldn’t be happier about that.”
It seems that the filming might have further impact than just raised awareness of Haddersford House and her residents. At the end of our interview, Anne confided that George had been expressing an interest in the mechanics of airplanes like the A350, and even planned to gift him a book on the machine. Perhaps one day, I suggested, British Airways might have a Captain Guest flying for them--or perhaps two. She laughed, but I like to think there was a considering gleam in her eyes.