When a fleet of white lorries made its way to Highclere Castle in Hampshire early last year, bearing the crew for the new Downton Abbey film, Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon, breathed a sigh of relief. “It was life-affirming; it felt as if a bit of normality was returning,” she says. “Everyone was nervous, as we were still in a pandemic, but we loved having them here, and so did the dogs.”

The Countess, who has overseen the filming of Downton’s six series and two films at her family’s 5,000-acre estate is not the only stately home owner to be pleased to see the cameras. Eleanor, Duchess of Argyll, was delighted when the film company behind A Very British Scandal arrived at Inveraray Castle, her husband’s family seat in Scotland, last year – even though the story, which tells of the toxic divorce of the 11th Duke from his wife, Margaret Campbell, wasn’t going to be a positive one. 

“If you’re lucky enough to own a stately home, you do anything you can to boost the roof fund,” she says. “We figured that there’s no one left to be really upset by the story, so if someone wants to pay to film at the house, and publicise it, then great.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Mark Ellis, a location manager who has worked on TV costume dramas such as Downton, another Julian Fellowes series Belgravia and Emily Mortimer’s adaptation of The Pursuit of Love, has regularly received calls from aristocrats looking to capitalise on Britain’s booming film industry, which was worth £3.6 billion in the first half of 2021. “They all seem to know each other – and a lot of them are really skint,” Ellis says. “One day you’ll be with the Duke of Northumberland, and the next day a countess will be calling to say she’s interested in having a film crew at her house.”

No wonder, given that visitor numbers halved during the pandemic, and Netflix, Amazon and Disney offer stately home owners between £3,000 and £20,000 per day (or up to £60,000 for a royal palace such as Hampton Court) to use their homes as locations.

Of course, not every duke or duchess can tolerate a 150-strong crew invading their home. According to Caroline Lowsley-Williams, whose family home, Chavenage House in Gloucestershire, starred as Trenwith in the BBC’s Poldark and is now regularly used as a location, some are too rich or too precious. “You have to be the right character to accept it,” she says. Given that Chavenage is also available as a wedding venue, Lowsley-Williams says she is used to “people wandering through our house and being sick on the lawn”. 

While filming doesn’t involve life-changing sums of money – a stately home can cost more than £1 million to run each year – it still makes a difference. Poldark paid for nine sets of curtains, endless repainting and a new lawnmower, while visitor numbers duly increased.