The fictional English county of Midsomer may have an exceptionally high murder rate, but it’s no wonder people still want to live there considering its its beautiful villages and stately homes.
Long-running ITV drama Midsomer Murders is based in Causton (also fictional), where DCI Barnaby (Neil Dudgeon) lives with his wife Sarah (Fiona Dolman).
In real life, Causton is filmed in the town of Wallingford in Oxfordshire, while the police station scenes are filmed at the former RAF Staff College in Bracknell.
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As Midsomer Murders returns for series 20, here’s what you need to know about the locations we’ll see on screen:
Where was Midsomer Murders episode The Ghost of Causton Abbey filmed?
This episode is based around a disused abbey that is believed to be cursed by an angry monk called Brother Jozef. Now two enterprising sisters are about to launch the Cursed Ale Microbrewery – but on the launch night, the curse appears to claim another victim when a body is found boiled to death in a kettle of beer.
As Causton Abbey doesn’t actually exist in real life, the exteriors were filmed on location at Waverley Abbey in Surrey. As pictured above, one body was discovered in the remains of the vaulted undercroft.
Waverley Abbey was founded in 1128 as the first Cistercian abbey in England, with an abbot and a dozen monks coming from Normandy to make this institution their new home. It was inhabited by Cistercian monks until King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536.
After the abbey closed, it was reduced to ruins as the stone was reused in local buildings, including the Waverley Abbey House which stands on the abbey’s former land.
During the First World War, the house was converted into a military hospital which treated over 5,000 soldiers, and it also has numerous defences which were installed during the Second World War.
Waverley Abbey House is now a nursing home and a Grade II listed building, while the ruins are managed by English Heritage, who keep them open to the public.
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