It’s shaping up to be quite the year for period dramas. After the eagerly anticipated announcement of season four of The Gilded Age, now we’ve got something as raunchy as Wuthering Heights with the power dynamics of Bridgerton season four: meet A Woman of Substance.
Starring TV legend Brenda Blethyn, this eight-part series is adapted from Barbara Taylor Bradford’s novel, widely regarded as one of the best-selling books of all time. It follows Emma Harte, a maid who rises to build a retail empire against all odds. From the picturesque Yorkshire countryside to glamorous 1970s New York, the series serves up some seriously stunning scenery.
Fun fact: none of it was actually filmed in New York, or even outside the UK. So, where was A Woman of Substance really shot?
Sam Taylor/Channel 4
A Woman Of Substance filming locations
Broughton Hall, Skipton, Yorkshire
Let’s get straight to the question everyone’s dying to know: where is the real mansion used in A Woman of Substance? Same, we had to find out too.
Known as ‘Fairley Hall’ in the series, the breathtaking mansion is actually Broughton Hall, located near Skipton in Yorkshire.
This historic house is over 400 years old and was also used in Channel 4’s original adaptation of the series back in 1984. A Grade I-listed Georgian manor, it sits on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales and forms part of the 3,000-acre Broughton Sanctuary.
“We filmed at Broughton Hall, which is beautiful,” explained Lydia Leonard, who plays Olivia Wainwright. “It’s one of my favourite places to shoot, and we used different bits of it this time. It adds so much to the piece because the house becomes almost like another character in its own right. I love the incredible locations you get to work in on period dramas, and we were staying just round the corner, spending the summer in Yorkshire.”
Even better? This 17-bedroom mansion can actually be booked for exclusive use, along with the converted barns and a goat farmhouse. Big birthday bash, anyone?