‘Starring in Downton has made our village a small fortune'
Residents in the village where Downton Abbey is filmed have claimed the hit TV show has made it a 'small fortune'.
Bampton in Oxfordshire has served as an outdoor location for the fictional community of Downton since 2010, becoming a magnet for tourists from around the world.
The tourism boom has divided the village, with some saying it has generated a 'small fortune' that has helped to improve local buildings and services. But others say they want their 'front drives free from brash American accents'.
Fans fascinated by the historical drama can pay as much as £500 each for a guided tour around Bampton and other Downton Abbey filming locations, and they often flock to St Mary's Church, which hosts weddings, christenings and funerals in the show's fictional village.
One elderly volunteer at Bampton Community Hub, used to depict the Downton Cottage Hospital, claimed that at one point their charity shop was making £1,000 a day from visitors.
The volunteer, who did not want to be named, said: 'It has made us a small fortune. Hundreds of thousands of pounds – we've had thousands and thousands and thousands of visitors'.
The popularity with visitors has helped the community fund renovation work to buildings including the Old Grammar School and improve services such as a village library, an exhibition space and a community archive.
The volunteer added: 'It is mostly Americans, the elderly ladies helping run the little shop at first didn't know what to do with all the dollars and other foreign currencies that began filling the till.
' It saved our library. Upstairs we have a social hub, we do events free of charge for the villagers.'
Other Bampton villagers, however, are more sceptical of the town's association with the franchise.
Fabrizio Manerba, 62, said: 'My friend overheard a tour guide say that Bampton was nothing before Downton Abbey. Let me tell you – Bampton was a beautiful, expensive place to live long beforehand.''
Mr Manerba described busloads of tourists arriving whatever the weather, saying: 'I live on the main square and they often stand in my driveway. They just go everywhere.'
Lynn Shuker, who works at an antiques store in Bampton, said the busloads of tourists might support the Community Hub, but they don't contribute to other shops.
She said: 'They contribute to the library, but apart from that they don't have enough time.
'We are better off with individual travellers, with families in cars – not the buses. There's so much more to Bampton than Downton Abbey.'
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