Location Managers Guild International

LMGI COMPASS | Summer 2020 • 39 a steam train and car journey across the North Yorkshire Moors. The concept of the house had been formulated by the designer: a haunting Victorian Gothic mansion situated in its own estate with semi-enclosed courtyard. The latter part of this brief was fulfilled by Duncombe Park on the edge of the North Yorkshire Moors. Still within the Faversham family, its current custodian the Hon. Jake Duncombe was familiar to location filming, but would he go for the designer's landscaping of his front courtyard into a derelict military installation? The rear gardens were perfect for the scenes outside the house before the walls of the 'secret garden.' Duncombe had wide grassy avenues between woodland and open areas of lawn overlooking the Yorkshire landscape. I meet with Jake and poised the important question… "The house had been requisitioned by the army during the war and used as a base. Ideally, we need to cover the front courtyard with the ruins of buildings and army vehicles." "That's not an issue," Jake said, "as the house was requisitioned in the '40s and used as a tank training base, hence the many miles of concrete roads throughout the estate, but will it ruin the lawns?" I promised we would try not to. We covered the three front lawns with a membrane and tons of topsoil; on top they built the ruins of military buildings. Gravel was swept from the drive and the surface was rutted, with a military truck dumped by the main gate. The actual house was not used, hidden with huge blue screens. Duncombe Park is a fine example of Georgian architecture; we did use the entrance hall and the ball- room, but its exterior was not what the designer wanted. Our final Misselthwaite Manor was a composite of two different Gothic hous- es and the interiors other than the entrance hall were on stage. After our completion, the front lawns failed to recover despite vigorous watering. We re-turfed the lawns just before a wedding celebration. Next up was the secret garden. During the research period, direc- tor Marc Munden had visited many landscapes throughout the UK wanting to combine locations to construct an exciting and adven- turous garden. These locations were either tucked away in remote places far from Pinewood, accessed by narrow roads and pedestri- an-sized paths. The secret garden also needed to have an exterior wall for Mary to climb. While exploring Misselthwaite's grounds, Mary befriends a dog. The two run off through overgrown woods— leading Mary right up to ivy-covered walls. This location was re- quired to be near Pinewood as many of the secret gardens would be situated across the country. Plenty of walled gardens are still standing but many are in use or cleared of woodland. A tip from another location manager lead to a derelict four-acre walled garden in Hertfordshire —including the wrought iron gate that Mary finds. It was unique, with woodland right up to the wall. This estate had leased off the manor to a private school. In order to film, we agreed to arrange a set visit for the pupils. The Secret Garden is a favourite book of this generation and what was going to be a handful became 40 keen kids. With the help of the producer's assistant, we planned Harlaxton Manor, Grantham, as Misselthwaite Manor. Photo by Tom Howard/LMGI

• Cover
• 02-03 TOC
• 28-35 13 REASONS WHY-V2
• 62-63 MARTINI SHOT