Alan Turnbull's
www.emmerdale.me.uk
Done the news, catch-up,
previews, gossip and spoilers?
ITV's Emmerdale
Behind the Scenes
ITV's Emmerdale
filming locations revealed
All the extras you won't find on
www.itv.com/emmerdale
EastEnders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks
and other shows too
Page last updated:
4th March 2024
COPYRIGHT © 2024, Alan Turnbull
All Rights Reserved
This website is not official and is not affiliated to, nor endorsed by, the Emmerdale production team, the Emmerdale Club, Yorkshire Television Limited, the Granada Media Group or ITV Studios Limited
Emmerdale's opening title sequence
Emmerdale
© Yorkshire Television Limited
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8a04bd16c6cccb8b7f79070bcab9aaa4

Introduction

In my Emmerdale website, www.emmerdale.me.uk, I take you behind the scenes of the long running Yorkshire Television (YTV) drama serial, originally devised by Kevin Laffan.

It has come a long way since starting (as Emmerdale Farm) in 1972 as a sleepy rural soap when the raciest storylines featured Jack Sugden bursting through Annie's farmhouse kitchen door, stomping his muddy boots on the mat and announcing, "By 'eck Ma, it's parky out".

You've probably always wondered where the programme is filmed and whether you could visit the locations. You've maybe joined one of those coach tours advertised in the Sunday papers only to be bitterly disappointed when you end up in a village near Bradford which ceased being used for filming many years ago.

Perhaps you've been lucky and have been guided around the interior sets on an official YTV Studio Tour, only to be told that the Emmerdale village is at a secret location miles away and is closed to the public. In any case, these Studio Tours only occurred at weekends, when the sets were not being used and the cast and crew were not there.

Now, due to Emmerdale going six times a week, the increased workload means that the interior sets are needed at short notice at weekends. The Studio Tours have now been suspended and bookings are no longer being taken.

Here, I reveal that with a little lateral thinking, a bit of luck, some Internet research tools and, of course, my "insider" knowledge, you can find those secret filming locations and go on your own Emmerdale tours. It should be pointed out that, as many of the Emmerdale locations are on private land and some are working businesses, care should be exercised to make sure you keep to public paths and don't trespass.

The good news is that the "secret" location of the Emmerdale village is criss-crossed by three famous walking routes (Leeds Country Way, Ebor Way and Dales Way) and it can be reached on foot by a leisurely 15 minute stroll along a public bridlepath.

Scroll down this page and journey with me on a guided tour of all the Emmerdale filming locations. When you click on a link, a new window will open.

Emmerdale Live Webcams

(Note: Emmerdale Webcams were switched off by ITV in October 2013)

In October 2006, ITV announced the launch of a webcam at the Emmerdale Village exterior set. Take a look at the example output from October 30th, when episodes for Christmas 2006 were being filmed.

Don't believe me? Click on the daylight webcam image below to switch to the night time view and notice the fairy lights adorning the Woolpack frontage, the Post Office and also the Christmas Tree itself, immediately behind Tricia's own memorial tree and bench. Note the huge filming light near the centre of the night time picture, plus the lorry containing the camera equipment. In early 2009, another webcam was installed on the Woolpack pub looking down onto the main street, to allow potential for spotting more action close-up.

Emmerdale webcam
Emmerdale Village Webcam image from October 2006
© Yorkshire Television Limited
Click on the image above
to switch between day and night!

Join the Emmerdale Club

The Emmerdale Club, established in 1990, is the only officially endorsed Emmerdale Fan Club. Members have the chance to visit the studios and locations and meet the cast, producers and writers. Send a large stamped, self-addressed envelope to:-

Jenny Godfrey
The Emmerdale Club
P.O. Box 330
ST. ALBANS
Hertfordshire
AL4  0LF

Don't forget to mention this
website when enquiring

Emmerdale fan Stephen Marshall with Bradley Walsh and Malandra Burrows
Emmerdale Club member Stephen Marshall appearing on ITV's "Number One Soap Fan" with Bradley Walsh and Malandra Burrows in December 2007
© Talent Television Limited

Emmerdale Studio Tours

Please note that, sadly, the Studio Tours have been suspended due to the hectic production schedule. There are currently no plans to start them again and bookings are no longer being taken.

Contacting Emmerdale

If you wish to write to the producers or members of the cast, please address your letters as follows:-

Emmerdale Production Offices
ITV Yorkshire Studios
Kirkstall Road
LEEDS
West Yorkshire
LS3  1JS

Map link options

Upon hitting the "GO" button below, this page will be refreshed with the new map link options you have chosen (or the default ones, if you first use the RESET button). PRIVACY: If you have enabled "cookies" on your browser, the new settings will also be saved on your computer. The "cookie" only remains for your current browsing session and just contains your map preferences – nothing else. It is deleted automatically when you close your browser. For full documentation on the map link options available just click on my Research Tools Page button also below.

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Emmerdale filming locations revealed

From 1972, Emmerdale Farm was filmed at YTV's main TV Centre in Leeds, which had been built on city centre clearance land only four years earlier. Early exteriors for Beckindale village were shot at Arncliffe in Littondale, high in the Pennine hills. Interestingly, Littondale's old Norse name was Amerdale and this is reflected in a local hotel name and the village hall. The logistics involved in getting the crew, equipment and cast to such a remote location meant that a new village had to be found.

In 1977, filming started at Esholt near Shipley, just a few miles away from the urban sprawl of Bradford in West Yorkshire, but which looked remarkably like a North Yorkshire village. The legendary Demdyke Row, the terrace of cottages which included Seth Armstrong's original home, was filmed at Esholt's Bunkers Hill.

The original Emmerdale Farm itself was at Lindley Farm near Otley, until the real farmer, Arthur Peel, retired and the farm was turned into barn conversions for holiday lets. In official YTV books, the real farmer is always referred to as "Farmer Bell". "Peel" – "Bell". Do you get it? As the Lindley filming location was no longer available, the storyliners invented a scenario whereby Jack Sugden's farm was suffering from subsidence and he had to move out urgently. A search was then launched for a new farm location.

In October 2008 fans got the chance to own the original Emmerdale Farm when it was put up for sale for real and full details were published in the Fine and Country property agents catalogue [PDF, 480KB]. But there was a £1.25 million asking price.

Many years ago, former Woolpack licensee Alan Turner ran a Fish Farm and this was filmed just down the lane from Lindley Farm at a real trout farm business. If you've been watching Emmerdale for a very long time, you might remember Matt and Dolly Skilbeck's son Sam, who attended primary school just a little further down the same lane at Farnley. Please note that Farnley Primary School, like all school buildings, is strictly out of bounds to the general public.

Otley was used as the nearby market town of Hotten. Otley Cattle Market was used for Hotten's livestock centre until Emmerdale dropped the "Farm" and stopped using animals in favour of "sexed-up" human-based storylines. A farm produce shop next to the cattle market oddly adopted the fictional name but insisted on spelling it "Hotton". Before animals finally disappeared from Emmerdale, Jack's organic lamb shelter was briefly filmed at Whetstone Farm, near Leeds/Bradford Airport at Yeadon.

Arncliffe in Littondale - Emmerdale Farm's first village location
Arncliffe in Littondale, Emmerdale Farm's first village location
Arncliffe's Falcon Inn - Emmerdale Farm's first Woolpack
Arncliffe's Falcon Inn, Emmerdale Farm's first Woolpack
Esholt's Bunkers Hill - Emmerdale Farm's Demdyke Row
Esholt's Bunkers Hill, Emmerdale Farm's Demdyke Row
Lindley Farm - the original Emmerdale Farm
Lindley Farm: the original Emmerdale Farm
Lindley Farm - the original Emmerdale Farm
Lindley Farm: the original Emmerdale Farm
Location filming at Lindley Farm
Location filming at Lindley Farm
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Emmerdale Farm for sale
Lindley Farm for sale in October 2008. Asking price £1.25 million
Photos www.fineandcountry.com
© Fine and Country
Lindley Bridge Fish Farm
Lindley Bridge Fish Farm
Farnley Primary School
Farnley Primary School
Otley Cattle Market
Otley Cattle Market
Creskeld Hall in the 1980s
Creskeld Hall in the 1980s
Creskeld Hall at Christmas 2006 with the stunt facade for Tom King's murder
Creskeld Hall at Christmas 2006 with the stunt facade (top right) for Tom King's murder
© YTV
Creskeld Hall in 2007
Creskeld Hall back to normal in Summer 2007
© YTV
Home Farm gas explosion
Home Farm gas explosion
The Home Farm gas explosion using a fake frontage for Creskeld Hall containing pyrotechnics
© YTV / Alwyn Richards Temporary Works Design /
Alan Stoyles Specialist Scaffolding

Since the very early days of Emmerdale Farm, Home Farm Estate (once occupied by Chris Tate – actor Peter Amory, who left the show in style in September 2003) has been filmed at the magnificent Creskeld Hall at Arthington, near Bramhope (pictured above). In the 19th Century it was known as Kirskill Hall, taking its name from the old hamlet of Kirskill a little further north, which is now part of Arthington.

Take a close look at the photos of Creskeld Hall above. Can you spot the difference?

For the Christmas 2006 "Who Killed Tom King?" storyline, the Emmerdale crew employed temporary building experts Alwyn Richards to design a facade on top of Creskeld Hall's flat-roofed link between the north and south wings. The fake structure was supposed to be a bedroom and it was constructed with a special window frame made of lightweight wood and sugar glass for the stunt man to jump through backwards onto a waiting mattress on the ground.

When deranged Zoe Tate blew up Home Farm in a deliberate gas explosion to spoil the King family's takeover, Alwyn Richards designed a fake frontage which protected the real building and also contained the pyrotechnic special effects. Both designs used Alan Stoyles Specialist Scaffolding.

Creskeld is now the longest serving film location used on Emmerdale and also provided a home to Chris Tate's sister Zoe (actress Leah Bracknell) and "superbitch" Sadie King, played by Patsy Kensit. The initial 20 episodes of the first series of Emmerdale Farm – already "in the can" – were broadcast from October 1972 onwards. Filming for the second series commenced at Creskeld Hall for the first time in November 1972, for broadcast in January 1973.

Eagle-eyed viewers of Heartbeat (in the days of Nick Berry and Niamh Cusack) would have noticed it also being used once as their "naughty weekend away" country hotel. Being highly photogenic, Creskeld Hall has been used extensively by YTV and other production companies over the years. Creskeld's Estate Manager kindly informs me that it was used (along with Farnley Hall, just south of the primary school mentioned above) for YTV's hugely popular drama Hadleigh. It ran in the early 1970s and starred Gerald Harper (Adam Adamant in the 1960s) as a country squire.

Creskeld Hall's Estate Manager also tells me that it has featured in YTV's Racing Game, Sandbaggers, Parkin's Patch and even Darling Buds of May, too. Yorkshire Television obviously likes getting value for money, where location fees are concerned.

Older viewers will remember the village strumpet Lynn Whiteley whose home was filmed at Wood Top Farm, just a few hundred yards down the road from Creskeld Hall. Fans of posh minx Lady Tara may be interested to learn that her Oakwell Hall was filmed at Stockeld Park at Spofforth between Harrogate and Wetherby. In 2006, this location was also used when Rosemary Sinclair took over as new lady of the manor. She was played by Linda Thorson who, in the 1960s, had starred as another Tara in The Avengers.

Stockeld Park has an interesting and quite surprising history. During World War Two, it was requisitioned and used as a maternity home for nursing mothers evacuated to the country – as were many other large houses in the area such as Hazlewood Castle near Tadcaster, which is now a luxury hotel.

When exterior shots of Frank Tate's Haulage Yard were needed, the Turnbulls Removals Warehouse Yard (below) on Education Road in Leeds was used. It is amongst all the units and mills on the Penraevon and Peter Laycock Industrial Estates, north of the city centre just off Meanwood Road. When the Kings took over and renamed the business Road Kings Haulage in 2006, the same filming location was used. In May 2006 it appeared in the storylines involving Carl and Chastity sabotaging Matthew's trucks and also the sexual awakening of vicar's niece Jasmine Thomas by evil Cain Dingle, the security guard (dog).

The irony of the real name of the business is not lost on the author of this website, but there's no direct family connection. It is also amusing that young Jasmine's Portakabin passion took place rather aptly in Education Road.

Turnbulls Removals Warehouse in Leeds - used for both Tates and Road Kings Haulage
Turnbulls Removals in Leeds used for both Tates and Road Kings Haulage
© YTV

Emmerdale's opening title sequence

Emmerdale's new title sequence May 2011
Emmerdale's new title sequence used from 30th May 2011

The impressive rail viaduct, seen in Emmerdale's opening title sequence from early 1998 until the end of Summer 2005, is known as either Wharfedale Viaduct or Arthington Viaduct and is just north of Creskeld Hall.

Until the opening titles were replaced by a newly-shot sequence in September 2005, the helicopter camera shots over the reservoirs were filmed at Fewston and Lindley Wood. The Lindley Wood sequence featured a car driving over a short three-arched viaduct across the reservoir. Another local beauty spot, Almscliff Crag made an appearance in the titles used from 1998 until 2005 too. In the new titles seen from September 2005 onwards, a brand new opening camera shot was featured using a helicopter swooping along Nidderdale at Ramsgill, heading south over Gouthwaite Reservoir towards Pateley Bridge.

The five arched bridge spanning a narrow gorge, also in the new titles, is actually Blayshaw Aqueduct, north west of Ramsgill and accessible by ramblers from the Nidderdale Way. The aqueduct takes Bradford's water supply from Angram and Scar House Reservoirs in Upper Nidderdale across Blayshaw Gill, a stream running from high up on the moorland above Ramsgill, north east down to the River Nidd at Lofthouse.

Wharfedale Viaduct at Arthington
The Duchess of Sutherland steam locomotive pulls the Leeds – York – Scarborough Spa Express across the Wharfedale Viaduct at Arthington
Photo: "Therosymole" at www.flickr.com
Bridge over Lindley Reservoir
Bridge over Lindley Reservoir
Photo: Steve James
Almscliff Crag
Almscliff Crag
Photo: Jim Moran at www.flickr.com
Ramsgill in Nidderdale, with Gouthwaite Reservoir in the distance
Ramsgill in Nidderdale with Gouthwaite Reservoir in the distance
© YTV
Gouthwaite Reservoir
Gouthwaite Reservoir
© YTV
Blayshaw Aqueduct
Blayshaw Aqueduct
© YTV

Esholt – time to move on

The use of Esholt as the village location was kept secret until a blundering official at the Bradford Tourist Board chose a photograph of Esholt's Commercial Inn (below) for the front cover of its brochure. Emmerdale fans immediately recognised it as the Woolpack Inn, Beckindale. The cat was well and truly out of the bag and the floodgates were opened for a deluge of holiday coach tours.

Ironically, many years later the Commercial was actually renamed The Woolpack and so now tourists could have their photos taken in front of the pub, without having to wait for filming days and the TV crew to put the "Woolpack Inn" façade in place.

This excitement was to be short-lived, as YTV found it increasingly difficult to work around the coaches full of rubberneckers (further below). On filming days, Bradford Police had to supply a constable to direct traffic through the village. Not all villagers hated the commotion, though. The Post Office doubled as a souvenir shop and one resident opened a tea shop in her large home. Of course, the pub would run dry in summer, too.

The owners of a working farm right in the middle of Esholt, just opposite the post office, had to erect a sign at its private entrance announcing "This is NOT Emmerdale Farm". The site has since been transformed by James and Denise Wainhouse into the popular St. Leonard's Farm Park which provides urban farm fun for families and parties of school children.

With all the chaos in Esholt, YTV had to take drastic action. A decision was made to plough (excuse the pun) millions into a purpose-built exterior set which would obviously be closed to the public and would enable uninterrupted filming – at night too, if necessary. But where? Read on.

Esholt's Commercial Inn - now renamed The Woolpack
Esholt's Commercial Inn now renamed The Woolpack
Location filming at Esholt
Location filming at Esholt
Location filming at Esholt
Location filming at Esholt
A youthful Glenda McKay poses during a break from filming at Esholt
A youthful Glenda McKay poses during a break from filming at Esholt
Malandra Burrows meets fans at a charity match at Esholt Cricket Ground
Malandra Burrows meets fans at a charity match at Esholt Cricket Ground

From Sunny Bank Mills to the Emmerdale Production Centre

In 1989, the interior filming had moved out of the main studios at TV Centre to a disused woollen mill's spinning shed at Sunny Bank Mills (below) in Farsley. Journalists quipped at the time that the mills were still being used for the spinning of yarns. Farsley's main street also took over from Otley as the location for Hotten. The move was done to free-up the valuable studio space at TV Centre for other productions, like Countdown.

When the soap was threatened with the chop due to poor advertising revenue performance, Phil Redmond – creator of Channel 4 soap Brookside (which was finally put out of its misery in November 2003) – was brought in as a consultant. After his infamous plane crash episodes made with a million pounds worth of special effects (the transmission of which, in rather poor taste, coincided with the anniversary of the Lockerbie atrocity), the programme was saved.

Emmerdale bosses used the tenth anniversary of the show's own plane crash to stage another special effects spectacular in the Christmas 2003/New Year 2004 episodes. The village was devastated by a freak weather storm (pictured further below), causing massive damage to buildings. The dramatic weather was made with specialist large scale feature film effects equipment. However, many of the scenes showing the village's buildings being damaged were implemented by painstaking computer and video post-production work by YTV's video editing department.

After the Christmas 1993 plane crash episodes, YTV celebrated its renewed ITV Network contract by sending Redmond back to Liverpool and constructing a brand new dedicated Emmerdale Production Centre, right next door to the main TV Centre in Leeds. The new studio complex, which was opened by the then Prime Minister John Major in 1997, was trumpeted by YTV as the largest single floor TV production facility in the world. The mill at Farsley – which has its production facilities on three floors – was kept by YTV as an interior set base for Heartbeat and A Touch of Frost.

In 2010 the main studios were initially earmarked for closure, but after a last minute reprieve were instead kept on and refurbished to high definition technology standards. Emmerdale subsequently moved back into the newly upgraded original studios and the Emmerdale Production Centre was sold off.

Sunny Bank Mills studio at Farsley
Sunny Bank Mills studio at Farsley
Director's Gallery at Sunny Bank Mills
Director's Gallery at Sunny Bank Mills studio
Frazer Hines studies his next script at Sunny Bank Mills
Frazer Hines studies his next script at Sunny Bank Mills
Emmerdale Storm at Christmas 2003
The Emmerdale Storm at Christmas 2003
© YTV

The Emmerdale Village exterior set at Harewood

YTV explored the possibility of building a complete outdoor set on land belonging to the Queen's cousin, George Lascelles, the 7th Earl Harewood. The Earl's large Harewood Estate stretches out between Leeds and Harrogate, just north of Eccup Reservoir. Earl Harewood's eldest son, David Lascelles, is an award winning TV and film producer, with episodes of Inspector Morse to his credit.

The Emmerdale village was built around a disused farm (Stub House) at Harewood. The post code for it (and hence the OS grid co-ordinates) can be found by using the Royal Mail website, but the entry is listed as Stubb House Farm. The name Stub (or Stubb) is an Old English word meaning "tree stump" and this refers to the adjoining Stub House Plantation.

YTV has a long history of using the Harewood Estate, as the classic 1971 children's TV series Follyfoot (complete with "Lightning Tree, down in the meadow") had been filmed there. The programme – hugely popular in Australia and Germany as well as the UK – was based on the early 1960s novel Cobbler's Dream by Monica Dickens, a direct descendant of Charles Dickens.

Amazingly, the disused outbuildings (pictured below) used for the filming of Follyfoot Farm can still be found largely intact over 45 years later, adjoining the private Hollin Hall which is south east of the A61 at Harewood village. Note the large Hollin Hall Ponds, south of the hall, which were featured in the Follyfoot storylines too.

The location can be reached on foot by a public bridleway running north-south past the neighbouring New Laithe Farm. The bridleway, which joins up with the famous Leeds Country Way walking route further south, is accessed from Harewood Avenue – the A659 Harewood to Wetherby road. The Follyfoot Farm location and the public bridleway access points are also featured on my interactive Google Maps virtual guided tour of the Emmerdale filming locations, at the end of this page.

Emmerdale had also used an old disused building (further below) on the Harewood Estate for many years in the 1980s as Joe Sugden's Mill Cottage, at the private estate village of Stank. The name Stank, by the way, is an Old English word for pond. The layout and design of Mill Cottage was copied and incorporated into Emmerdale's exterior set village, but the original filming location at Stank still stands over twenty years later – just.

The now derelict building was used again in December 2006 (also further below), when Zak, Shadrach and Belle Dingle scouted around for materials to steal – sorry, "recycle" – for use in the building of Marlon and Donna's new dream home. The junk items lying in the foreground of the picture were props with which the TV crew dressed the scene, but the boarded-up windows and the "Danger – Keep Out" signs were for real.

Follyfoot Farm outbuildings at Hollin Hall, Harewood
Follyfoot Farm outbuildings at Hollin Hall, Harewood
Photo: www.follyfoot-tv.co.uk
© Simon Dakin
Mill Cottage at Stank, Harewood
Mill Cottage at Stank, Harewood in the 1980s
Mill Cottage at Stank, Harewood
Mill Cottage at Stank, Harewood in 2006
© YTV

The nearby Rudding Holiday Park had been used for Frank Tate's Holiday Village in the 1990s, when Emmerdale went through its "Home & Away" / "Neighbours" phase, featuring all the young cast members – the Dales babes and hunks – cavorting semi-naked around the swimming pool. It had been resurrected for the disastrous Soapstars experiment which used a Pop Idol type reality TV show to recruit a new family.

The storyliners struggled to write for them and the established actors on the show took umbrage at having the newcomers imposed on them by YTV's parent company Granada, whose other company LWT had made Soapstars. It was funny how all the Soapstars actors' scenes were shot at the Holiday Village, well away from all the other actors. You will notice that Rudding Holiday Park is near a village called Follifoot (see above and note the subtle spelling change).

The home of the briefly featured Cairns family was also filmed on the Harewood Estate at Carr House. Head of the family Tony Cairns was played by actor Edward Peel, who many years earlier was one of the actors who played Tom Merrick, the first husband of Jack Sugden's first wife Pat. Are you following this?

Tony Cairns' son Will was played by Paul Fox who subsequently had greater success in Coronation Street as the son of Mike Baldwin. He bedded Mike's young wife, played by another Emmerdale favourite Jacqueline Pirie who made her name as Tina Dingle. In 2003, Paul Fox landed a role as a doctor in YTV's Heartbeat spin-off, The Royal. Indeed, it can be great fun spotting former Emmerdale actors in other YTV productions. For details on the filming location for The Royal, keep on reading to the end.

An agreement was made between YTV and Harewood that, as the area is "green belt land", the Emmerdale village would be built with an initial lease of 10 years. After that period, if the contract options were not taken up or planning permission was not renewed, the site would have to be landscaped back to its original condition.

A village based loosely on the layout of Esholt, but additionally incorporating the design of Mill Cottage at Stank, was built on spare land next to Harewood's Stub House Farm and work was completed in record time. Filming commenced in late 1997 and the village (below) was seen on screen for the first time in early 1998.

The Emmerdale Map

Repeatedly click on the map image below to zoom in to an annotated aerial photo of the Emmerdale village location. Then keep clicking to zoom out again. If you're fascinated by that, then you'll be amazed by the close-up views of the Emmerdale village on Google Earth further below. At the end of this page, I've even provided an interactive virtual guided tour of all the filming locations using a special implementation of Google Maps, including high resolution aerial photography. Just keep on reading.

Location of the Emmerdale village at Harewood. Repeatedly click on this image to zoom in to an annotated aerial photo and then out again
Location of the Emmerdale village at Harewood: "X" marks the spot
Click on the image above to zoom in
to an aerial photo and then out again
Map images generated from the Get-a-map service
with permission of
Ordnance Survey
The Emmerdale village at Harewood
The Emmerdale village at Harewood
The Woolpack replica at Harewood's Emmerdale village
The Woolpack replica at Harewood's Emmerdale village
Photo: www.metoffice.gov.uk
Bruce Wilson - regular senior cameraman on Emmerdale in action
Bruce Wilson, regular senior cameraman on Emmerdale in action
(Note: Bruce passed away in September 2014 and a dedication to his memory was included
in the credits of both Emmerdale and Coronation Street)
Smithy Cottage
A shy visitor sits on Tricia's memorial bench in front of the vets' Smithy Cottage
Photo: Michael Duncan

Noreen – where have I seen her before?

In early 2006, a new character was introduced to Emmerdale village life, in the form of feisty pensioner Noreen Bell who caused havoc with her mischief making. She was played by Jenny Tomasin, who famously starred as Ruby Finch the scullery maid in the hugely popular 1970s ITV drama Upstairs Downstairs. Jenny's other claim to fame is being exterminated by the Daleks in a 1985 episode of the cult BBC children's sci-fi series Doctor Who.

Emmerdale's Noreen Bell lived over on the far south east edge of the village in Tall Trees Cottage (pictured below). It is beyond Mill Cottage, near to the Cricket Pavilion and is named after the large plantation further east. This location had not previously been used for filming until 2006, but the adjoining building has provided storage for the Yorkshire TV gardener who maintains the Emmerdale exterior set at Harewood.

Noreen was killed in the King's River show house explosion in July 2006, featured further below. A distant cousin of Noreen's, Gilbert Duff, turned up for the reading of the will. In an obvious joke by the Emmerdale casting director, he was played by Christopher Beeny who had played Edward Barnes the footman and chauffeur in Upstairs, Downstairs. Many fans quipped that the show should be renamed Updale, Downdale. Christopher also starred alongside Thora Hird as an undertaker in Yorkshire TV's In Loving Memory in the 1980s. In the early 2000s, he was reunited with Thora by making guest appearances in the BBC's long running Last of the Summer Wine.

In July 2007, in a rather unlikely development, Tall Trees Cottage became the much-wanted dream home for Marlon and Donna, after they had spent months living in a derelict caravan on the Dingles homestead land.

Tall Trees Cottage - Noreen's home
Tall Trees Cottage – Noreen's home
© YTV

Emmerdale Village on Google Earth

The Emmerdale Village at Harewood
An aerial view of the Emmerdale village at Harewood
The Emmerdale Village at Harewood on Google Earth
The Emmerdale Village at Stub House Farm, Harewood on Google Earth
Click on the image to switch
the annotations off and on
The Emmerdale Village close-up on Google Earth
The Emmerdale Village close-up on Google Earth
Click on the image to switch
the annotations off and on
Emmerdale's use of Stub House Farm at Harewood on Google Earth
Emmerdale's use of Stub House Farm at Harewood on Google Earth
Click on the image to switch
the annotations off and on
Emmerdale Village by Webb Aviation
A close-up oblique aerial view of the Emmerdale village at Harewood
Aerial photo by special arrangement with www.webbaviation.co.uk
© Jonathan C. K. Webb

Other soaps and TV shows

Heartbeat

For those of you without Google Earth, a gallery of close-up oblique aerial views of the Emmerdale village set at Harewood (one of which is pictured above – reduced), shot in December 2004, may be obtained from specialist aerial photographers, Webb Aviation, based in my home town of Stockport, Cheshire.

They also have a gallery of stunning aerial photos of Goathland near Whitby – the location for the village of Aidensfield in YTV's other popular drama, Heartbeat. The Goathland gallery even features a photo with each filming location (e.g., the pub, garage, post office and train station) marked on it.

Goathland station, on the North Yorkshire Moors railway between Pickering and Grosmont, played the part of Hogsmead station where Harry Potter arrived for his first term at Hogwarts School of Wizardry.

The Royal

Another firm favourite from YTV, the makers of Emmerdale, is The Royal – a spin-off from Heartbeat. It features the folk who work at St. Aidan's Royal Free Hospital in fictional Elsinby, which is the town near to Heartbeat's Aidensfield.

The exterior shots of St. Aidan's are filmed not at Goathland or even Whitby, but at an impressive block of exclusive apartments on the corner of Holbeck Road and Esplanade at Scarborough's South Bay. Immediately opposite is the distinctive monument with a clock face in Holbeck Gardens overlooking the bay. Just around the corner on Esplanade Crescent, you'll find The Royal's Nurses' Home which is played by another block of private flats.

Just a few hundred yards further south east, at the end of Sea Cliff Road, is the site of the infamous Holbeck Hall Hotel which, following a catastrophic landslide, collapsed and crumbled into the North Sea in June 1993. The interior scenes of St. Aidan's are filmed out of the area entirely, at a disused maternity ward at Bradford's St. Luke's Hospital.

The Royal Today
The Royal Today uses the rear of YTV's Studio in Leeds (right) and some "virtual reality" magic
© YTV
Hotten Hospital
Emmerdale's Hotten General Hospital is really just YTV's Studio main reception around the front
See on Google Street View
© YTV

Coronation Street

You can spot the Coronation Street set (postcode: "M60 9EA"), hidden amongst Granada's original 1950s studio buildings in Manchester, even better by visiting the website of specialist aerial photographers Webb Aviation (as detailed above).

Of course, in Coronation Street's opening title sequence, the neighbouring roads and the Metrolink tram going over the world famous viaduct were all added by clever use of virtual reality computer software and video editing. The viaduct is really just a thin façade concealing a studio building.

For a fascinating comparison of the "before" and "after" shots of the virtual reality makeover of the Coronation Street set, visit a gallery of photos, the BBC Children's TV Newsround programme.

Coronation Street set in Manchester
Coronation Street set at Granada Television's original 1950s studios
Aerial photo courtesy of
National Police Air Service, NPAS Barton
Coronation Street set in Media City, Salford
Coronation Street set at ITV's new Media City studios
Aerial photo courtesy of
National Police Air Service, NPAS Barton
Coronation Street set in Media City, Salford
Coronation Street set at Media City, Salford
Aerial photo courtesy of
National Police Air Service, NPAS Barton

EastEnders

The EastEnders set (postcode: "WD6 1JF") for "Albert Square, Walford, London, E20" is actually at the north west corner of the BBC's Elstree Centre in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire (below), formerly one of the various sites of the Elstree Film Studios dotted around the town.

The BBC Elstree Centre's main administration block, Neptune House (also below), was Commander Straker's SHADO HQ in Gerry Anderson's classic series UFO, filmed in 1969 and starring Ed Bishop. Elstree's Neptune House has featured in the BBC's Grange Hill and Holby City too.

The Albert Square set for EastEnders was built in 1984 on the studio's old back lot between Borehamwood's Stratfield Road, Welbeck Close and Malden Road, all at the end of Clarendon Road. Immediately previous to this, the same back lot had been used for the German building site in the first series of the hit comedy Auf Wiedersehen Pet.

Casualty

The BBC's long-running medicated soap Casualty – from which Holby City (mentioned above) was developed – has always been filmed in and around Bristol. The exteriors for the hospital's Accident and Emergency Department were originally filmed at the Ashley Down campus of the City of Bristol College, while interiors were shot in BBC Bristol's studios.

More recently, with compact camera and lighting equipment, it has been possible for the Casualty interiors to be shot in its own mini-studio using an old warehouse off Waterloo Road in the St. Philips area. Meanwhile, exteriors for the show have been filmed at a special hospital facade built in front of some old units on the Lawrence Hill Industrial Estate, a short distance away.

The Bill

The other "blue light services" are represented by ITV's The Bill – the long-running soap covering the police action in and around Sun Hill. The interior sets for The Bill are situated within production company Talkback Thames Television's studios on the corner of Windsor Avenue and Deer Park Road in Merton Abbey near Wimbledon in South West London. They also include sets for Sun Hill's hospital, St. Hugh's.

The exterior of the studio building is used for the outside of Sun Hill's Police Station. Around the back, to the south east of the same studio complex, you can just spot (on Google Earth) the old Stanley Street exterior set for Talkback Thames' now defunct soap for Channel 5 called Family Affairs, which was set in the fictional London suburb of Charnham.

The Big Brother House at Elstree Film Studios

Over on the other side of Borehamwood's Shenley Road, fans of Channel 4's Big Brother reality show can find the contestants' high security compound (further below).

It is at the rear studio entrance, next to the George Lucas Sound Stage (used for the early Star Wars films), at the end of the delivery vehicle service road for the new Tesco Superstore, which stands on the site of other former Elstree Studio buildings.

EastEnders set at the BBC Elstree Centre
Bird's Eye view of the EastEnders set at the BBC Elstree Centre
Bing Bird's Eye
Neptune House at the BBC Elstree Centre
Bird's Eye view of Neptune House at the BBC Elstree Centre
Bing Bird's Eye
Big Brother House secure compound at Elstree Film Studios
Big Brother House secure compound (right) at Elstree Film Studios
Big Brother House at Elstree Film Studios
Bird's Eye view of the Big Brother House at Elstree Film Studios
Bing Bird's Eye

Brookside

The now defunct Brookside (postcode: "L12 0BA") was filmed on an estate of houses specially purchased (at £25,000 each) in the early 1980s by Phil Redmond's Mersey TV company, just off Deysbrook Lane in West Derby, Liverpool. The estate is just a mile away from Liverpool Football Club's Melwood Training Ground and is also very close to Croxteth Hall and Country Park, which itself has been used as a film and TV location regularly.

Although the estate was called "Brookside Close" in the programme, the real road in West Derby is called just "Brookside" and the real residents live in numbers 1-41. Number 43 Brookside, West Derby was the address of the soap's production office, beyond a security barrier at the far end of the road. In total, 13 houses were owned by Mersey TV – six featured in the storylines and the other seven were used for costume, make-up, video editing, prop stores and canteen, etc.

In the 1990s, Mersey TV expanded the original set by using part of their new headquarters, Campus Manor, located at an old college in Childwall ("L16 0JP"). When characters in Brookside walked from their houses up the passage "to the shops", the actors and the camera crew actually had to switch to the newer location in Childwall for "Brookside Parade", "Bar Brookie" and the petrol station. The passage at the original set in West Derby was in reality a dead end.

The Mersey TV HQ at Childwall has more recently been used for the filming of teen soap Hollyoaks and The Courtroom – the not too subtle reincarnation of that old Granada favourite from the 1970s, Crown Court.

In Summer 2004, the disused Brookside sets at Childwall were converted for use by the BBC's Grange Hill, which Phil Redmond originally devised in 1976. It is ironic now that, since the BBC contracted-out the production of Grange Hill to Mersey TV and it left the BBC's Elstree studios, Phil Redmond has finally regained full control of his creation.

In July 2005, Mersey TV announced that all 13 houses on their old Brookside estate were to be sold off at around £250,000 each. Obviously it is thought that the six houses which actually featured in the character storylines would be snapped up by rich fans.

Crossroads

This much maligned long running soap about a motel in the Midlands deserves a special mention, if only because of its notoriety for being axed and relaunched twice. Infamous for its wobbly sets and even wobblier performances by some actors, it started in 1964 in between Coronation Street and Emmerdale Farm.

For almost 20 years it was firmly fixed in ATV's Broad Street, Birmingham studios although early episodes used a real motel - Cherry Trees, on Stratford Road in Oversley Green, Alcester, Warwickshire. It was demolished and replaced with the Cherry Trees Care Home which opened in 2003.

In the early 1980s, filming took place at Cheltenham's Golden Valley Hotel (now part of the Thistle chain), right next door to the Government's secret spy base – GCHQ.

In the mid-1980s a new producer took over and introduced a breath of fresh air, using a four star AA listed hotel near Sutton Coldfield - the Penns Hall Hotel at Walmley, now renamed the Ramada.

Scenes depicting Kings Oak village were filmed at Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire (not to be confused with Tamworth in Staffordshire). Tanworth's St. Mary Magdalene church, Ivy Stores shop and Bell Inn pub – all around the pretty village green – played their part in regular storylines, with the Bell Inn representing the show's Running Stag.

Crossroads opening title sequence

In came some new opening titles too. They featured a couple in a red car setting off from Birmingham city centre, making their way to Crossroads Motel on the motorway and along a winding country road past a splendid gatehouse (right) to an estate. The title sequence along the country lane was filmed on the minor road between Hockley Heath and Tanworth and the estate entrance can be found at Umberslade Hall and Park's East Lodge, although the road has now been diverted further north, away from the gatehouse, to go over the new M40 motorway. To this day, many Crossroads fans are still convinced the couple were two of the show's principal characters, David and Barbara Hunter. Although they were similar, they were just extras hired from a casting agency.

Towards the end of the show's original 25 year run, it was actually renamed Crossroads Kings Oak. Another new opening title sequence featured sweeping helicopter aerial photography over Tanworth-in-Arden and arty still shots of Penns Hall Hotel taken from across the lake to the rear.

The show was axed in 1988 only to be resurrected in both 2001 and 2003 for two relaunches featuring a purpose built interior set at Central / Carlton Studios at Lenton Lane in Nottingham. New location filming took place across the city and the outside hotel shots just used the studio reception and car park. The studios have since been closed and are now part of the University's campus. Crossroads has closed its doors for the last time too.

Last Of The Summer Wine

Fans of Nora Batty and friends will be aware that the show has been set in Holmfirth near Huddersfield for 35 years. Sid's Cafe can be found in the town centre, in a courtyard adjoining the town's parish church. Nora Batty's house is just west of the town centre in a terrace off Hollowgate.

You can visit the country pub used by those Summer Wine rascals for their regular meetings, but you'll find it a few miles outside Holmfirth at the White Horse Inn at Jackson Bridge.

Where The Heart Is

Aside from Heartbeat and The Royal, Sunday night on ITV also means more Yorkshire drama in "Where The Heart Is", which follows the lives of the district nurses and their families in Skelthwaite.

The show, which seems to employ famous actors from all the other soaps, is filmed around Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley, south west of Huddersfield, close to Holmfirth's "Last of the Summer Wine" Country.

Fans will be interested to learn that the Skelthwaite Arms is played by the Silent Woman pub in Slaithwaite. If, like me, you fancy the idea of Denise Van Outen taking your dressings off and rubbing Fiery Jack into your aching muscles, Skelthwaite's Health Centre is home to those district nurses and can be found in the neighbouring town of Marsden. Goddard's Paper Factory can be found in nearby Meltham, at the headquarters of the Disposables UK Group.

Teletubbyland

Now for something quite bizarre. Shhh – don't tell your little children, but Teletubbyland is certainly over the hills, but not that far away really. The location chosen by the independent company Ragdoll Productions for the filming of the BBC's hugely popular show for pre-school children, Teletubbies, was in the middle of farm land near the Warwickshire village of Wimpstone, near Stratford-upon-Avon – the production company's base.

The Teletubby Superdome can be spotted just south west of the Avon Aquatics Fish Farm at Sweet Knowle Farm, through which an access road was built for the TV crew.

Note that the aerial photos on Multimap were taken in 1999 and the filming site for Teletubbies was finally abandoned in 2002, after 365 episodes had been shot – one for each day of the year.

In June 2007, the location became visible at hi-res on Google Earth, but the imagery (below) was still several years old and the farmer's fields have actually now been landscaped back to their original condition and the Superdome has gone – a large pond is in its place, as revealed by newer imagery from Getmapping.

Teletubbyland on Google Earth
Teletubbyland at Wimpstone, Warwickshire on Google Earth. Superdome (left) with production buildings, car park and access road (right)
Google Earth
Teletubbyland gone
Eh-oh, Tubby gone. Teletubbyland has now been landscaped away
Bing aerial photo

Channel 4's Space Cadets

In December 2005, the makers of the Big Brother reality TV shows staged a spectacular hoax, claimed to be the most expensive, elaborate and technically demanding spoof in TV history, which took over a year to plan. They persuaded the gullible contestants to believe they were being taken to Space City in Russia to train as cosmonauts and be launched into near space, orbiting Earth in a shuttle.

In reality, it was all filmed at a "secret" location in the UK – a disused military base near Ipswich in Suffolk, formerly used by the USAF at the height of the Cold War. But where, exactly? Visit my Secret Bases website for all the precise filming locations, including the Space Shuttle simulator, training camp and Mission Control!

Back to Emmerdale: out and about in Yorkshire

The tearful farewell to Sam Dingle at "Hotten Station", shown in January 2005, was actually filmed at Embsay, on the edge of Skipton, on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway.

However, obviously a diesel multiple unit was used to transport Sam and new love Alice away to a new life in Norfolk. They both returned later for Alice's cancer and euthanasia storylines.

In April 2005, Emmerdale ran an unlikely storyline involving the steamy assignations between Paddy the vet and village postmistress (and harlot) Viv Windsor. The excruciating scenes were filmed at the Grade II listed Oulton Hall Hotel near Rothwell, Leeds.

More hotel bedroom capers were featured when Matthew King "entertained" not only Louise but also Sadie (separately!) at the Cow and Calf Hotel on the edge of Ilkley Moor. It is named after the famous rock formation seen from the hotel's windows. The receptionist turned out to be one of Matthew's old conquests too. I should perhaps point out that she was played by an actress.

When Carl King begged Chastity Dingle to leave her career in the Army, her "barracks" actually had no military connection at all. The scenes were filmed at the main gate of the British Library Document Store at Thorp Arch Trading Estate near Boston Spa, Wetherby.

In August 2006, Hotten's train station moved to the very handy location of Burley Park Station on the Leeds to Harrogate line, just a short drive from the Emmerdale Studio. The line goes over the Wharefdale Viaduct at Arthington, which featured in the old opening title sequence.

Burley Park Station was used for the storyline involving Len Reynolds, Edna Birch and Danny Daggert tracking down Pearl Ladderbanks and bringing her home after she had fled the village following a financial scandal. She had been working as a barmaid at a city pub and this too was filmed just down the road from the studios, at the Rising Sun Inn on Kirkstall Road, Burley.

Burley Park train station was memorably used as Hotten Station again in 2007 when Diane Sugden left the village, ostensibly to visit her daughter Bernice Blackstock – but in reality to escape her desire to have an affair with Billy Hopwood.

In October 2006, Emily Kirk returned from her exile from the village, following her disappearance with baby Sarah, the child of teen mum Debbie Dingle. The return actually marked the end of actress Kate McGregor's own maternity leave and also the introduction of a new teenage actress taking over the role of Victoria Sugden.

The storyline involved the new Victoria noseying around Emily's childhood home Wylie Farm, after taking a bike ride up to the deserted buildings. She had the shock of her young life when an apparent ghostly figure, cloaked in a haunting hood, appeared as a frightening vision at one of the farmhouse windows. This of course, turned out to be Emily herself, who had been living rough at the farm upon her return to Emmerdale.

The impressive location chosen for this memorable story is on the Harewood estate at Stockton Grange Farm (below), just north of the main Harewood Avenue. It is in a spectacular elevated position with stunning panoramic views of Wharfedale all around. It is also next to the famous Harewood Speed Hill Climb circuit used by the British Automobile Racing Club.

In November 2006, Edna Birch's grand-daughter Eve (with whom she had fallen out) returned from France to Emmerdale for her marriage blessing and after much persuasion, she agreed to attend. The wedding episodes also introduced Anne Charleston (Madge Bishop in Neighbours) as Edna's sister Lily. The location used for the reception was actually an old run-down nursing home in secluded grounds at Gildersome, south west of Leeds. It had only opened as the Woodlands Hotel and Restaurant in 2004, following a £2 million refurbishment project.

In June 2007, Marlon Dingle was accidentally shot in the chest during the bungled armed robbery of a betting shop, which he had planned with Eli in order to get back the winnings from a bet that had been witheld by the unscrupulous bookie. The gripping action was played out in and around an empty shop unit dressed by YTV to look like a bookmakers, adjacent to the famous Leeds Rifleman pub on Carlton Parade near Carlton Barracks in the Little London area of inner city Leeds.

As the "Who Killed Tom King?" storyline developed, Hotten Police Station obviously featured in more episodes. While interiors were filmed in the Emmerdale Production Centre, a handy building – also already owned by YTV just around the corner on Cavendish Street, off Kirkstall Road – was used for the exteriors.

A posh apartment rented by DCI Grace Barraclough (actress Glynis Barber) featured in the storylines involving her illicit affair with Carl King. A penthouse flat was used at the new Whitehall Waterfront development next to Riverside West on Whitehall Road near Leeds train station.

In earlier episodes, the new NCP multi-storey car park at nearby Wellington Place had been used for the scenes when Eli Dingle kidnapped Marlon and threatened to throw him off the top. Eli actually ended up dangling over the side himself after Marlon broke free and fought back. The complicated scenes couldn't be repeated and filmed from several camera angles as normally happens. Instead, multiple shots were filmed simultaneously in one "take". This resulted in an amusing on-screen "blooper", when the cameraman on a huge crane was seen in the camera shot from the opposing angle taken from within the moving van.

More roof-top capers had Emmerdale fans gripped in August 2009 when actress Sally Oliver's surprise departure from the show followed tense scenes as an emotional Lexi took Nicola and Jimmy's new born baby onto the roof of the hospital maternity unit. It was actually filmed rather conveniently just across the road from the Emmerdale studios on Burley Road, at a brand new building run by Roomzzz as one of their three Leeds city centre aparthotels.

In May 2009, mysterious newcomer Faye Lamb (Kim Thomson) drove Mark Wylde (Maxwell Caulfield) to distraction at the penthouse flat "in Hotten" where she revealed to viewers his devastating 30-year secrets in special episodes. It was filmed at the rooftop apartment at 14 Park Row, overlooking Upper Basinghall Street in the middle of Leeds City Centre's Headrow shopping district. Mark Wylde finally emerged emotionally battered and bruised through the main doors next to the Slug and Lettuce bar, the signs for which were cleverly hidden with tight camera angles.

When Jimmy King went on the stag night for his ill-fated marriage to Kelly Windsor, the "Velvet Peach Gentlemen's Club" was actually a real newly-opened Leeds branch of the Wildcats chain of lap-dancing bars in Wellington Street. Moreover, the saucy minxes who really work at Wildcats stayed on after their "night shift" to film scenes as extras, much to the excitement of the male members of the cast. Or perhaps I could have put that better as "male cast members".

In October 2007, Jack Sugden went all the way down to "Margate" to find Diane. They actually strolled around Harrogate's Valley Gardens. The Emmerdale team went to the trouble of having background extras carrying surf boards, placed seaside souvenirs, buckets, spades and postcards in the Valley Gardens Teashop and even erected a fake Margate road sign on a Yorkshire country lane.

Riverside West (left) and Whitehall Waterfront (right) apartments, Leeds
Whitehall Waterfront (top right) next to Riverside West (left), Leeds. DCI Grace Barraclough's posh penthouse apartment during her illicit affair with Carl King
Photo: "chris-leeds-uk" at www.panoramio.com
Whitehall Waterfront penthouse apartment, Leeds
DCI Grace Barraclough's posh penthouse apartment (top right) at Whitehall Waterfront, Leeds
Photo: "chris-leeds-uk" at www.panoramio.com
Car park for Eli and Marlon Dingle stunt
Car park for Eli and Marlon Dingle stunt
Emmerdale camera crew appear in shot
Eli kidnaps Marlon Dingle and threatens to throw him from the top of the new multi-storey car park in Wellington Place, Leeds. Whoops – the Emmerdale crew appear in the camera shot taken from inside the van
© YTV
Emmerdale Production Centre in Google Street View
Google Street View of Emmerdale Production Centre (far right) and Roomzzz Aparthotel, Burley Road, Leeds (far left) used for Lexi taking Nicola's new baby onto the hospital roof
Google Street View
Emmerdale Production Centre and Roomzzz roof
Looking west over Emmerdale Production Centre and Roomzzz Aparthotel roof
Bing Bird's Eye
14 Park Row apartments in Google Street View
Google Street View of 14 Park Row, Headrow, Leeds. Penthouse Flat above Slug and Lettuce bar used for the Mark Wylde and Faye Lamb meeting that revealed their devastating 30–year secret
Google Street View
Valley Gardens, Harrogate
Valley Gardens, Harrogate used as "Margate" park when Jack Sugden went to meet Diane in October 2007
Photo: "denees" at www.panoramio.com
Stockton Grange Farm
Emily Kirk's "haunted" Wylie Farm. Stockton Grange Farm at Harewood
© YTV
Stockton Grange Farm
Victoria Sugden approaches Emily Kirk's "haunted" Wylie Farm
© YTV

Location filming in Scotland – June 2005

In June 2005, special location filming took place at Crinan Boatyard in Argyllshire, Scotland. It wasn't until Tuesday 20th September 2005 that the scenes were finally broadcast in an hour-long special.

Although filmed on Scotland's west coast, the scenes were used for Zoe Tate's attempt to escape from all her troubles to Ireland, which was thwarted by Patsy Kensit – as Sadie King – arriving in style by seaplane.

Find out more by visiting the website of the charter company, Loch Lomond Seaplanes.

Patsy Kensit as Sadie King with the seaplane at Crinan, Argyllshire, Scotland
Patsy Kensit as Sadie King with the seaplane at Crinan, Argyllshire, Scotland
Photo: Loch Lomond Seaplanes
© YTV

Location filming in Spain – October 2005

In October 2005, the Emmerdale entourage jetted off to Spain's Costa del Sol for an hour long special broadcast at the end of November. It featured the Dingles tagging along with Eric Pollard while he attempted a dodgy business deal with the Kings.

Extensive location filming took place in the popular town of Nerja and the coastal village of Punta Lara, close to Malaga Airport and the Sierra Nevada ski resort.

Also featured heavily in the episode was the "Balcony of Europe" – a promenade on top of a cliff, once the site of a Moorish castle, with stunning views of the Mediterranean Sea and the beaches and coves below.

The Utterly Butterly wing walk – March 2006

Guinot - AeroSuperBatics new sponsors
Utterly Butterly girls at Rendcomb Airfield
Mmmm ...
Utterly Butterly girls at Rendcomb
and the new Team Guinot colours
© AeroSuperBatics Ltd

The Emmerdale bandwagon set off again in early 2006, this time swapping the Yorkshire Dales for the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, to film scenes transmitted on Monday 6th March 2006.

They featured cancer chemotherapy patient Alice Wilson (actress Ursula Holden-Gill [née Marsden]) and Carl King (actor Tom Lister) performing a charity wing walk on the world famous Utterly Butterly biplanes, named after their sponsors at the time.

Carl hoped the grand gesture would finally persuade Chastity "Chas" Dingle (Lucy Pargeter) to accept his numerous proposals of marriage.

The spectacular sequences, using the actors themselves and not stunt doubles, were filmed using specialist camera equipment at Rendcomb Airfield near Cirencester.

Rendcomb has a fascinating history. During World War One, the airfield was a training centre for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), but is now privately owned and operated by AeroSuperBatics Limited.

In 2007, new sponsors Guinot took over. They are manufacturers of beauty and skincare products – very handy for the brave resident Rendcomb flying girls, exposed to all the elements. The planes got a complete makeover too.

Every summer until 2006, many of the Emmerdale cast members travelled up to Inchmarlo Golf Centre at Banchory, on Royal Deeside between Aberdeen and Braemar, on the route to Balmoral Castle. They raised money for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust at the Emmerdale Extravaganza weekend and many braved the Wing Walk.

In the photos below, taken at nearby Aboyne Airfield during the 2005 event, see how village vicar Reverend Ashley Thomas (actor John Middleton) had some unholy thoughts while being strapped in by one of the lovely girls from the Rendcomb HQ. Meanwhile, Eric Pollard (Chris Chittell) looked as if he was struggling with some windy weather in the Trossachs.

Emmerdale Extravaganza

Extra 300
© Extra Aircraft

The annual Emmerdale Extravaganza has become so popular that it has outgrown its previous regular venues in Scotland. The Summer 2008 event was held for the first time in Northern Ireland over the weekend of 8/9 June 2008. It was based at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum at Holywood near Belfast. The dinner dance and auction were held at the five star Hastings Culloden Estate Hotel and Spa just across the road. The Emmerdale Golf Challenge took place at Blackwood Golf Centre, Clandeboye, near Bangor and the new Go Loopy Challenge – a chance to perform aerobatics in an Extra 300 plane – was based at Newtownards Airfield.

In February 2008, the ex-Red Arrows Blades Aerobatics Team, based at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire, gave an on-screen taste of what Emmerdale fans could expect at the Newtownards event. The storyline involving Viv Hope's charity event was filmed up at the old RAF airfield at Sherburn in Elmet near Leeds.

The 2007 event took place over the weekend of 9/10 June 2007 and was based at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre to the north of the city at Bridge of Don. The Emmerdale Golf Classic was played at Craibstone Golf Centre to the west of the city and the wing walkers took off from a small private airstrip on farmland at South Mains of Ardiffery at Hatton near Cruden Bay, further north towards Peterhead.

Do you want to see Rendcomb's team in action? Do you fancy doing a wing walk yourself? Find out more at AeroSuperBatics. Full details on the Emmerdale Extravaganza weekends can be found on the website of George Walker Events. Sadly, plans for the 2009 gathering – due to take place in Ulster again – were halted. By 2010, they were back on track in Aberdeenshire at the Grampian Country Fair over the weekend of 12th and 13th June 2010.

John Middleton (Ashley Thomas)
Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard)
John Middleton (Ashley Thomas) and Chris Chittell (Eric Pollard) try out the Wing Walk experience at the annual Emmerdale Extravaganza
© Gary Watt
Photos reproduced by kind permission

Sadie King's "sham" marriage – March 2006

Sadie King's sham marriage
© YTV

In an episode broadcast on Friday 24th March 2006, Sadie King (played by Patsy Kensit) went through a wedding to well-heeled Alasdair Sinclair. It was apparently staged by her as a drastic ploy to finally ensnare her original husband's brother Matthew King, who had been unwilling to commit to their on-off affair. This top-rated episode of Emmerdale was filmed at All Saints' Church in the popular tourist village of Kirkby Overblow near Harrogate, close to many other Emmerdale filming locations used over the years. One of the village's pubs, the Star and Garter, was also seen in the background of several camera shots. Kirkby Overblow had previously been used by Yorkshire Television in Summer 1986 as the location for the comedy drama series Langley Bottom, which starred Bernard Cribbins as a nosey odd-job man.

Steph's Psychiatric Unit – May 2006

Adam makes Steph hallucinate that Terence is in the room
© YTV
Adam threatens Steph in the psychiatric unit
© YTV

On Sunday 21st May 2006, a controversial storyline was screened involving Stephanie Stokes (actress Lorraine Chase) being admitted to a psychiatric unit. It was done at the insistence of her new husband, the control freak (and village doctor) Adam Forsythe (Richard Shelton).

The episode showed Steph hallucinating after drinking water spiked with a drug administered by "Evil Doctor" Forsythe himself.

Steph imagined that her brother and childhood tormentor Terence Turner (Nick Brimble), whom Adam had murdered, had come back from the dead. It was all filmed at a real psychiatric unit within Fieldhead Hospital in Wakefield.

The King's River house explosion – July 2006

In early 2006, some spare land immediately behind the car park for the Harewood YTV Location Facilities Building (described later) was used for the filming of the construction yard for the King's River Development of new homes (below). It also introduced the brief toxic waste dump storyline.

In Summer 2006, the location was used for the spectacular special effects filming of the massive explosion (also below) that was to destroy the Kings' show home on the grand opening day.

In an hour long special which was broadcast on Thursday 13th July, the show home was rocked by a gas explosion triggered by an electrical spark, killing two main characters – Noreen and Dawn – and a visiting estate agent and trapping others in the resultant house collapse.

Emmerdale's feisty pensioner Noreen Bell had a nosey around upstairs while she waited for the loo. She was killed instantly when she opened the airing cupboard, causing a light to be automatically switched on, which in turn ignited the gas leak. Dawn later died in hospital of internal injuries after initially showing signs of recovery.

The villagers demanded answers from the King family after it was revealed that the gas leak was caused by the attempted sabotage of the King's River Development by Sadie and Cain. They had used a JCB digger to smash into the side of the house and Jimmy King had failed to repair the damage properly.

The villagers were shocked even more when a third body was later found ... buried in the foundations of the house. The police identified it as Terence Turner – Steph's brother and tormentor – and he was placed there by evil Doctor Adam Forsythe who, of course, expected him to be hidden forever.

A familiar face to Emmerdale viewers returned to play the part of the Health and Safety Executive investigator, looking into the cause of the King's River disaster. Throughout the 1980s, Peter Alexander played regular character Phil Pearce, a builder who lived with Sandie Merrick and who was a business partner of Joe Sugden, renovating Mill Cottage. He was jailed for his involvement with an antiques fraud organised by that slippery old rogue Eric Pollard. Peter has appeared in many other soaps and has played guest roles in YTV's Heartbeat too.

It seems Terence Turner, or more precisely actor Nick Brimble, is no stranger to grisly on-screen deaths. Precisely 30 years earlier in 1976, at the start of his acting career, he was tortured to death (pictured further below) on the alien planet Psychon in Gerry Anderson's classic sci-fi series Space 1999. It happened in an episode of season two called The Metamorph in which Nick played Eagle Interceptor co-pilot Ray Torens. His murderer that time was larger-than-life actor Brian Blessed as the evil Mentor, with his diabolical biological computer called Psyche.

King's River Housing Development
King's River Housing Development behind the Location Facilities Building
© YTV
King's River house collapse on Google Earth
Google Earth imagery from Summer 2006 showing King's River house collapse (top left) and Location Facilities building (right)
King's River show house explosion
King's River show house explosion
© YTV
Nick Brimble in Space 1999
Terence Turner (actor Nick Brimble) meets another grisly end in Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 episode "The Metamorph"
© ITV4 / Gerry Anderson Productions
ITC Entertainment

The Tom King kidnap plot – September 2006

In September 2006 – in a storyline designed to lead up to the planned exit of actors Jeff Hordley, Patsy Kensit – Cain and Sadie plotted to kidnap Tom King and demand a ransom from his sons.

Cain found a secret hideaway cottage in a clearing in the woods near Emmerdale which was to be used to keep Tom prisoner. But much to Sadie's anger and disgust, the plan was disastrously compromised when lustful Cain also used it to romance Woolpack barmaid Tonicha (Toni) Daggert on the side.

Emmerdale location managers used a handy disused building, Woodside Cottage (pictured below), hidden away in the middle of the Harewood Estate and only accessible by a small track through the woods, south east of the Emmerdale village exterior set.

In subsequent episodes, Cain was dispatched on a new errand armed with Sadie's list of disused farm buildings, in order to find another secret location to carry out their dastardly plan. He exclaimed "Job done!" when he approached a suitably bleak and windswept candidate.

The YTV location managers chose the curiously named America Farm (also below). It is up on Rigton High Moor near Harrogate and interestingly, only a couple of miles away from the original Emmerdale Farm location from 1972 at Lindley, a little further west. America Farm is almost within the shadow of the famous local landmark Almscliff Crag, which once featured in the Emmerdale opening title sequence, discussed earlier.

The whole storyline climaxed on Thursday 21st September in yet another Emmerdale special effects spectacular. The kidnap plan apparently went wrong as Cain realised he'd been betrayed. He lost his cool and ended up fleeing in a car, with both Sadie and Tom taken prisoner this time, but not knowing quite where he was heading.

Cain heard a police helicopter giving chase and in a blind panic, he headed off at high speed through the woods towards a flooded quarry. The car plunged over the edge into the huge lagoon (right). But all was not quite what it at first seemed. There were plenty more twists and turns, including a surprise return of that Loch Lomond Seaplane.

Cain's car stunt in the flooded quarry
Cain's car stunt in the flooded quarry
© YTV

For the car stunt, YTV went outside the normal filming areas completely and even outside the county of Yorkshire. They found a disused limestone quarry at Capernwray near Over Kellet, Carnforth in Lancashire, alongside the M6 motorway.

In the 19th century it was called Overhead Quarry, but is now known as Jackdaw Quarry (further below) and is the home of the Capernwray Diving Centre. Filming of the stunt took place at the southern end of the quarry, where the police helicopter landed on a ledge.

August 2021

Jackdaw Quarry at Capernwray was used by Emmerdale again in August 2021 for special filming of a car crash stunt on a bridge involving actors Matthew Wolfenden (David Metcalfe), Isabel Hodgins (Victoria Sugden) ... and former boyband The Mend member Jay Kontzle (Billy Fletcher).

A mock-up of a bridge was constructed on one side of the diving centre and so it looks like in Emmerdale episodes to air in early September, a car crashes off the bridge and certain characters are submerged in the water.

Emmerdale Cast Filming Jackdaw Quarry Capernwray
Emmerdale at Jackdaw Quarry, Capernwray again in August 2021
for special filming of a car crash stunt on a bridge
involving actors Matthew Wolfenden (David Metcalfe), Isabel Hodgins (Victoria Sugden) ...
... and former boyband The Mend member Jay Kontzle (Billy Fletcher)
© BSAC – British Sub Aqua Club

In April 2007, America Farm at Almscliff Crag was used again for the hilarious episode in which the Dingles towed Paddy Kirk to a remote location while he was sleeping off a hangover in Donna and Marlon's caravan. Paddy found himself abandoned at "Littlewell Crag", confronted by a rampaging bull. It pushed the caravan down the hill, hurtling towards America Farm, only coming to a halt by crashing into a stone wall.

Both of the America Farm and Woodside Cottage locations were used yet again in January 2008 for the story of Sam Dingle going on the run with his son Samson.

Woodside Cottage - Cain and Sadie's first secret hideaway
Woodside Cottage. Cain and Sadie's first secret hideaway for their kidnapping plot and Sam Dingle's hiding place on the run with son Samson
© YTV
America Farm
America Farm. Cain and Sadie's second secret hideaway for their kidnapping plot plus Sam Dingle going on the run with son Samson and the location for Paddy Kirk's hilarious runaway caravan stunt
© YTV
Jackdaw Quarry, Capernwray near Over Kellet, Carnforth, Lancashire
Jackdaw Quarry, Capernwray near Over Kellet, Carnforth, Lancashire
© YTV

Emmerdale Murder: Who Killed Tom King?

For the first five months of 2007, viewers had the chance to play a Cluedo-style game of "Whodunnit?" in a unique online interactive experience, specially created by ITV for the Christmas 2006 storyline. As members of the community of sleuths on the special web-based Emmerdale Channel, they had exclusive access to videos, emails and voice mails.

Ten separate murders were filmed, featuring all the possible suspects. There was even an eleventh, surprise outcome rumoured to feature all three King brothers – Jimmy, Carl and Matthew – as joint murderers. All this meant that even the cast and crew didn't know the top secret ending until the final "reveal" in a special hour long show broadcast on Thursday 17th May 2007, featuring the Emmerdale village's 500th anniversary pageant officially opened by opera star Katherine Jenkins.

There was also the "sudden death of a much-loved character" – Len Reynolds. Actor Peter Martin had already been cast as Captain Mainwaring in a touring stage production of the hit 1970s TV comedy Dad's Army, leading many fans to assume that Len Reynolds would be revealed as Tom King's killer too.

As the King brothers' trial collapsed due to Rosemary's attempt to frame them all using false statements made by Hari Prassad, a shock confession was later made by the actual killer – Carl King, played by Tom Lister.

So did you solve the crime before Hotten Police, by spotting the clues, following the leads and avoiding the "red herrings"? Did you figure out that Carl was the mystery hitman who ambushed Tom King on his wedding day, pushing him to his horrific death through the bedroom window, before he even enjoyed his honeymoon? Did you become a resident "Emmerdalian" to see if you could cut through the gossip and find the answer to the "killer question"?

The truck crash in the lake – February 2007

In February 2007, more water-based filming took place for a storyline involving Victoria Sugden (new actress Isabel Hodgins) and Andy Sugden's ex-jailbird father Billy Hopwood (David Crellin).

Dodgy Eli Dingle had severed the brake pipes on the dustbin truck that Billy was driving, at the request of Kelly Windsor – eager to rid the village of her father's killer in a botched Post Office raid many years earlier.

But Billy Hopwood was actually in the process of kindly returning the wayward teenage Sugden daughter home after an illicit under age boozy night clubbing session in Leeds.

In a special hour-long episode, the truck's brakes inevitably failed and the pair ended up plunging into a lake, where they both fought for their lives underwater.

The driving sequence was performed in Yorkshire by stuntman Stuart St. Paul and the special effects for the crash itself were organised by stunt co-ordinator Adam Eastay.

He chose a lake secluded in woodland known as Waterhouse Whin (meaning gorse, furze and thorny vegetation) within the Harewood Estate. In fact, the lake (or large pond) is only revealed by studying Ordnance Survey maps at 1:25000 and 1:10000 scales. It is alongside the official YTV private access road down to the village set and is strictly NOT publicly accessible. But you can fly there on Google Earth.

The vehicle's chassis was fitted with a special cannon device containing compressed nitrogen. When triggered on the Director's shout of "Action!", the truck (containing dummies in the driver and passenger seats) was catapulted off its ramp into the air, reaching 60 mph after travelling just seven metres, before hitting the water.

Meanwhile, the two Emmerdale actors filmed the tense underwater escape sequences over in Lancashire, in the state-of-the-art Environmental Survival Training Tank at Fleetwood's Offshore Survival Centre (FOSC) (further below), part of Blackpool and Fylde College's Broadwater Nautical Campus.

The FOSC was originally set-up for the safety training of Navy and Gas/Oil industry personnel, but TV and film crews have seized on the potential too. Famously, the Richard Hillman (Brian Capron) storyline for Coronation Street, where he attempted to drown the Platt family in Weatherfield Canal, was also filmed there.

The stunt team preparing to catapult the truck into the lake
The stunt team prepare to catapult the truck into the lake using a compressed nitrogen cannon and a ramp
Photo: "Emmerdale Confidential"
© ITV Productions Limited
The truck crashes into the lake at Waterhouse Whin on the Harewood Estate
The truck crashes into the lake at Waterhouse Whin on the Harewood Estate
© YTV
Environmental Survival Training Tank, Fleetwood Offshore Survival Centre (FOSC)
Environmental Survival Training Tank at Fleetwood Offshore Survival Centre (FOSC) Broadwater Nautical College Campus near Blackpool
© FOSC
Photo: www.blackpool.ac.uk

The murder weapon landfill site – February 2007

Later in February 2007, the police investigating the Tom King murder made a significant breakthrough. They found the implement which was used to kill Tom King at Christmas 2006.

To the shock of everyone, the weapon – a bronze horse's head statue hidden in a black bin bag – was actually recovered by forensic teams searching the King family's own landfill site.

The location used for the filming was Biffa Waste Management's huge Skelton Grange landfill site to the south east of Leeds, alongside the M1 motorway at Newsam Green near Swillington. It is on the site of the old Gamblethorpe open cast coal mine workings.

Skelton Grange landfill site
Tom King's murder weapon. The bronze horse's head statue is found at Skelton Grange landfill site, Newsam Green, Swillington, Leeds
© Leeds City Council

Belle Dingle's private school – February 2007

Hotten Independent School for Girls
© YTV

Also in February 2007, Belle Dingle surprised everyone – not least of whom her parents – by being put forward for an entrance exam at Hotten Independent School for Girls by her headmistress (and target of Uncle Shadrach's lecherous advances) Mrs. Burgess (Eileen O'Brien).

Belle declared her intentions of becoming a top heart doctor, thereby bitterly disappointing her mum Lisa who had assumed she would follow in the family traditions of pig farming, supping vast quantities of ale and causing trouble.

However, her proud dad Zak quite liked the sound of her full title "Doctor Tinkerbelle Dingle" – enough to give anyone a coronary.

The comical scenes were actually played out at Harrogate Ladies' College, which is set in 27 acres of exclusive Duchy of Lancaster land in the middle of the town. The clapped-out Dingle transit van rumbled into the posh entrance on Clarence Drive off Harrogate's Duchy Road. The college also comprises Bankfield Pre-School and Highfield Preparatory School on the same campus.

Garry Bushell, the TV critic in the Sunday People newspaper, remarked rather unkindly that a more suitable private all-girls school for Belle might have been "Roguedean".

Confusingly, in a continuity lapse by the Emmerdale crew, a Road Kings Haulage truck was seen parked in Harrogate's Clarence Drive for the whole of the scene when the Dingles were met by the head girl at reception. Had the King brothers come along for moral support? No. These large vehicles, painted in fictional livery, are used by the production team to transport all the cameras, lights, sound and other equipment to filming locations.

The talented youngster (played by the equally talented promising child actress Eden Taylor-Draper) achieved a pass rate of 98% – unheard of in Dingle history. However, the Dingles had a major shock in store when Belle's headmistress revealed that the annual fee would still be £2000, even after a substantial bursary had been awarded. So it seemed that poor Belle was likely to turn out "ladette" rather than "lady" after all – until the surprise offer of help from wealthy Rosemary Sinclair (Tom King's widow) was accepted.

In episodes broadcast in March 2007, former "Page 3" topless model Linda Lusardi arrived in Emmerdale as Tom King's first wife Mary's cancer nurse (and his lover!), Carrie Nicholls. She brought with her the fruit of that illicit past relationship, her teenage daughter Scarlett. Further filming was done at Harrogate Ladies' College for Belle Dingle's first day and also for scenes featuring Carrie removing her daughter from the posh school when the evil King brothers blocked the fee payments, following the feud over the will.

Harrogate Ladies' College
Belle Dingle takes her entrance exam at Hotten Independent School for Girls, Harrogate Ladies' College
Photo: www.hlc.org.uk
© Harrogate Ladies' College

Court appearances by the Kings – March / May 2007

In November 2006, all the Emmerdale regulars crammed into the public gallery for the trial of Alan Turner's daughter Stephanie Stokes. She stunned everyone by admitting to the murder of Terence but she also implicated Adam Forsythe, prompting him to take his own life in the remand centre later.

The court scenes, including Adam taunting Steph from the prison van, plus Alan Turner and Betty Eagleton fighting off press photographers, were filmed at Morley Town Hall on the outskirts of Leeds.

In March 2007, the same location was used when all three King brothers – Jimmy, Carl and Matthew – were arrested and appeared in court together, accused of conspiracy to murder their father in the "Who Killed Tom King?" storyline.

Kelly Windsor also appeared in the same court just days later, accused of providing a false alibi for her boyfriend Jimmy King. Later in March 2007, the King brothers made an appearance at Crown Court, with Jimmy having a heart-to-heart with new "sister" Scarlett on the court steps.

The filming location switched to Wakefield Court House, on the corner of Wood Street and Cliff Parade, next to Wakefield Town Hall and directly opposite the main police station.

When Kelly's full trial date finally arrived in May 2007, Jimmy arranged to meet a dodgy contact to pick up some fake passports so that he and Kelly could escape from the whole Tom King murder nightmare and start a new life together. In the end, they decided not to go ahead with the plan but Kelly arrived at court so late and was so typically mouthy that the judge placed her in custody over the weekend as punishment, before resuming the case on the Monday.

The layby with the burger van chosen for the handover was at Golden Acre Park, just a short distance from Emmerdale's key filming locations around Harewood and Eccup. The same layby was used in the previous episode when Bob Hope had gone on the run following his breakdown and had slept in his son Jamie's ice cream van.

Also in May 2007, when Bob subsequently met his guiding spiritual light – in the form of mysterious tramp Errol Michaels (played by Tony Booth) – the scenes were played out around Barran's Fountain near the Upper Lake and Waterloo Lake within Roundhay Park between Leeds and Harewood.

New Emmerdale character revealed – October 2007

In October 2007, a new actor joined Emmerdale. He was spotted filming at the village location with co-stars Nicola Wheeler ("Nicola de Souza") and Matthew Wolfenden ("David Metcalfe"). They are all pictured below in an exclusive photo supplied to me by a fan who had used this website to find the Emmerdale filming locations.

The new character appeared in storylines starting in November 2007 involving the revelation that Nicola's supposedly dead rich husband was in fact still alive (but on a life support system in hospital). Her inheritance depended on tracking down her husband Donald's son Miles, before he learned the same news from cub reporter Jasmine Thomas who was on the scent of an exclusive story for the Hotten Courier. Miles de Souza was played by Ayden Callaghan.

Donald was played by famous thespian (and regular voice-over artiste) Michael Jayston. The private hospital where Jasmine followed Nicola as she visited Donald was the Leeds Nuffield Hospital in Leighton Street.

Ayden Callaghan plays Miles de Souza in Emmerdale
New character "Miles de Souza" actor Ayden Callaghan (far left) with Matthew Wolfenden ("David Metcalfe") and Nicola Wheeler ("Nicola de Souza"). Pictured during a break from location filming in October 2007

Emmerdale Train Crash – October 2010

Jackson and Aaron's van hit by train at level crossing

Yet another major stunt was filmed for Emmerdale's storyline in October 2010 featuring Aaron Livesey's (actor Danny Miller) boyfriend Jackson Walsh (Marc Silcock) careering off the road in a van at a level crossing and being hit by an oncoming train. The sequence used the preserved Great Central Railway (Nottingham) at Ruddington in Nottinghamshire next to Rushcliffe Country Park. The Asher Lane level crossing was used and a real Class 47 diesel locomotive (number 47292) was driven by a member of the railway preservation society.

Meanwhile, as Emmerdale was broadcasting the train crash in October which had been filmed in Ruddington in August, Coronation Street was filming the spectacular special effects for the 50th Anniversary specials in December 2010. A massive explosion in The Joiners bar in the viaduct arches causes a collapse, bringing a Manchester Tram crashing down.

Emmerdale Train and Van crash
Emmerdale Train and Van Crash October 2010
© ITV
Coronation Street tram crash
Filming for the Viaduct Tram Crash in October 2010 for the 50th Anniversary of Coronation Street in December
© www.bigpicturesphoto.com
Coronation Street tram crash
Filming for the Coronation Street Viaduct Tram Crash
© ITV

Emmerdale Sky Dive – May 2011

Jackson's skydive at old World War II airfield – formerly RAF Hibaldstow – at Brigg near Scunthorpe

Actor Marc Silcock volunteered to do the parachute drop himself rather than leaving it to a stunt performer. While Jackson, his mother Hazel and Jackson's on-off boyfriend Aaron went on a May Bank Holiday break to Whitby in the story, the filming was done at Hibaldstow Airfield back in March 2011.

Emmerdale Valentine's Day Massacre – February 2012

John Barton's exit filmed on Ilkley Moor

Actor James Thornton had announced his decision to leave Emmerdale after two years appearing as the head of the Barton family. He was tipped as a chief suspect for Cain's brutal attack at Christmas 2011. His final scenes were filmed in early January 2012 during long night shoots until 3am, high up on the moorland near Ilkley, above the villages of Silsden and Riddlesden. Various locations surrounding Nab End Quarry were chosen for complicated stunt sequences involving cars ... and fake boulders.

Emmerdale's use of Stub House Farm at Harewood

Before the Emmerdale Village had been built, Stub House Farm and its outbuildings on the Harewood Estate (further below) had for some time been used as locations for the Dingles' Farm, Eric Pollard's factory and the home of the Reynolds family – the latter being referred to as Holdgate Farm in the show. It was then occupied by the Marsdens, most of whom were written-out at the end of 2003 after only nine months on the show. In March 2004, yet another family – the Kings – moved into Holdgate Farm.

YTV cleverly built the replica village right next to these locations so that they could all be seen in each other's background shots. The production designers also managed to incorporate Stub House Beck - a stream running through the site from Harewood House – by having a ford at one end of the village and a humpback bridge at the other end.

The Dingles' Farm is also sometimes referred to as Wishing Well Cottage and sure enough, there is a real well (known as Langley Well ), indicated nearby on the OS map.

A signpost erected at the Harewood village location indicates that the market town of "Hotten" is supposed to be 8 miles away and the neighbouring villages of "Connelton" and "Robblesfield" are both just over 3 miles away.

Looking north towards Stub House Farm, Harewood with YTV's access road on the left and the public bridleway on the right
Looking north towards Stub House Farm, Harewood
YTV's private access road and the Dingle residence (left) and public bridleway (right)
Holdgate Farm - the Reynolds' / Marsdens' / Kings' home at Stub House Farm
"Holdgate Farm" the Reynolds' / Marsdens' / Kings' home at Stub House Farm
Eric Pollard's factory at Stub House Farm
Eric Pollard's factory at Stub House Farm
Emmerdale village signpost
Emmerdale signpost at the Harewood location showing distances to Hotten, Connelton and Robblesfield

More Emmerdale filming locations around Harewood

Transportation concerns meant that a brand new approach road to the village location had to be built for the TV crew, access to which was made through Burden Head Farm (below). It is another farm owned by the Harewood Estate and was used as the final metamorphosis of Jack Sugden's farm. In September 2007, a large barn at the farm was used as the location for Zak Dingle's bare-knuckle fight contest.

The YTV access road can clearly be seen on the aerial photo. The farm itself can be seen in the middle left of the photo. The access road goes through the farm and takes a sudden turn south, before suddenly turning again to continue east.

Use the navigation buttons on the Multimap site to follow the road east towards Stub House Farm and the Emmerdale village.

The first replacement for Jack's farm (immediately following the loss of use of the Lindley location) was at Bank Side Farm (also below), not far away. It was known in the show as Hawthorn Cottage and it was due to be a new start for troubled Jack and Sarah, until poor Sarah perished in a mysterious barn fire.

In 2003, animals made a surprise guest appearance in Emmerdale again, when young farmer Andy Sugden and his girlfriend Katie Addyman (Sammy Winward) set up home together at Butler's Farm.

In the storyline, it is supposed to be on the Tates' Home Farm Estate land. In reality, it is filmed just a short distance down the lane from Burden Head Farm, at Brookland Farm in the village of Eccup.

The new filming location was used increasingly throughout 2003, until it was a focal point for the Sugdens struggling to save the farm animals in the Christmas/New Year storm.

As 2004 started, the storylines reached explosion point with farmer's wife-to-be Katie succumbing to the questionable charms of Andy's best man (and brother) Robert.

In September 2004, Butler's Farm was the scene of yet more scandalous action when Andy Sugden, then estranged from Katie, ended up deflowering schoolgirl Debbie Dingle (or to be pedantic, "Debbie Jones", played by young actress Charley Webb) – daughter of Emmerdale's resident psychopath Cain Dingle.

In May 2007, at the time of the "reveal" for the "Who Killed Tom King?" storyline, the stunt for the car crash in which Louise Appleton (Emily Symons) was badly injured was filmed along the minor road north of Eccup heading towards Weardley, going past Brookland Farm, Burden Head Farm and Eccup's village pub, the New Inn (further below).

Burden Head Farm
Burden Head Farm
Bank Side Farm
Bank Side Farm

Eccup's New Inn gets a starring role – May 2006

The car park at Eccup's New Inn (below), just up the road from Brookland Farm, is sometimes used by the TV crew as a temporary location facilities base when they are filming for Butler's Farm scenes. The New Inn makes a great stop for lunch too, when you're planning your own Emmerdale location tour holiday trips.

On Tuesday 9th May 2006, the New Inn finally got its moment of TV glory when it was featured as an Emmerdale filming location in its own right. Both the interior and exterior of the pub were used in several scenes for the episode in which Lesley Meredith (actress Sherrie Hewson) went down memory lane on a lunch date with her old flame from 30 years earlier, Bobby-John Downes. They danced together around the classic style jukebox, much to the bemusement of the Eccup regulars. Bobby-John was played by Brian Hibbard, veteran of many TV soap appearances and the founder & former lead singer of 1980s a cappella group The Flying Pickets.

Lesley and Bobby-John rekindle their romance
© YTV

The romance was rekindled, leading to the pair walking hand-in-hand into the sunset in a later episode, thereby completing Sherrie's departure from the show. Lesley also arranged an illicit afternoon of passion in a luxury suite of the Skipdale Hotel, Kelly Windsor's credit card. After being found out, she was paraded in her underwear around the car park of the filming location, the Weetwood Hall Hotel near Leeds.

It has become a regular Emmerdale location and was used in August 2007 when Chastity Dingle woke up next to a dead businessman after a particularly boozy and energetic night in his room. It is also the venue for the Emmerdale Fan Club's annual gala weekend, but the same shocking antics are never in evidence of course.

The New Inn at Eccup
The New Inn at Eccup. Brookland Farm is further down the road
Photo: www.leeds-camra.com

Location facilities

A Location Facilities Building (further below) was added right next door to (just north of) Stub House Farm at Harewood to provide catering, make-up and costume departments, etc. Before September 2005, it was just possible to make out the Facilities Building on Emmerdale's opening title sequence, which was filmed in 1997 from a helicopter flying low across the newly-built village from the south east, towards the north west.

In the old title sequence (pictured below), Stub House Farm and its outbuildings, used for the Reynolds' / Marsdens' / Kings' home, the Dingles' Farm and Eric Pollard's factory, can all be seen in the distance in the middle of the TV picture. The Facilities Building is on the far right. Note that the field behind the vets' surgery (between the village and Stub House Farm) is still awaiting the growth of new grass, planted by the production designers.

The Location Facilities Building, with car park to the rear, can be seen at the top left of Multimap's aerial photo. It is a temporary "log cabin" type structure and so can be dismantled if Emmerdale is forced to leave the Harewood location whenever the lease expires and is unable to be renewed.

Emmerdale's opening title sequence showing the use of Stub House Farm at Harewood in the distance
Location Facilities Building and catering van
Location Facilities Building and catering van

Visiting the Emmerdale village location at Harewood

The bad news is that the Emmerdale village itself is not accessible. Obviously, YTV spent millions on it – they don't want the same trouble they had with Esholt. Any dreams you may have had of walking past the Woolpack and peering through Betty Eagleton's net curtains must stay just that – dreams. The two access lanes down to the village from Stub House Farm are gated and protected by 24 hour camera surveillance and security staff. The gates are locked unless it's a filming day.

If, like me once, you turn up on a filming day, you are quite within your rights to walk past the Dingles' Farm and Eric Pollard's factory, but you are likely to be politely asked to wait by the Unit Manager until the camera shots have been taken. On many occasions when watching the programme, I have noticed ramblers in brightly coloured cagoules walking in the background of scenes shot at the Dingles' Farm.

The good news is that, as Stub House Farm itself is on a public bridleway, you can reach it from the main road at this point. There's even a convenient lay-by here, in which to leave your car. The bridleway running west-east extends along the north of the Emmerdale village so you can walk around the back of the Woolpack. The bridleway running north-south goes right past the Dingles' Farm, the Kings' home and Eric Pollard's factory.

Do not go through any gates. Also, do not attempt to approach via the YTV access road at Burden Head Farm. You will almost certainly be apprehended and prosecuted for trespass. Just remember to stick to the public rights of way indicated on the OS maps and don't deviate. Bear in mind that you're on the Harewood Estate. Watch out for horsey women in headscarves and large ruddy-faced gentlemen with shotguns, shouting "Get orf my land"!

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Emmerdale
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