UP! - North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Literary locations
AONB landscapes provide settings for famous books and films
THIS is the view from White Hill near Kingsclere,
looking towards the landscape of Watership Down.
Yes, that Watership Down. It really exists – and it’s in
the North Wessex Downs.
Many people think that Richard Adams’s timeless
book about the rabbit families on Watership Down
is a work of fiction. It is, except that Adams drew on
his memories of living near the real Watership
Down in northern Hampshire.
Adams’s classic 1972 book, with its memorable
characters such as Fiver, Hazel, and Bigwig, became
a family-favourite film and television series. Its
Bright Eyes theme tune sung by Art Garfunkel was a
UK number one hit.
Close by Watership Down is Sydmonton Court, the
stately home of composer Lord (Andrew) Lloyd-
Webber who owns the local estate.
The Earl of Carnarvon recently allowed his
ancestral home, Highclere Castle, to be used as
the location for the popular ITV series Downton
Abbey.
Overlooking the Thames, the National Trust’s
Basildon Park near Pangbourne has provided the
authentic 18th century setting for the feature film of
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira
Knightley. Austen was born and raised in Steventon,
between Basingstoke and Andover.
The River Thames itself, the eastern boundary of
our AONB, can also claim to be a literary location.
Author Kenneth Grahame, who lived in Pangbourne,
14 | UP! On The North Wessex Downs