Grassfield Hall: History of this country house rental close to All Creatures Great and Small filming locations

Now a luxury private country house rental, Grassfield Hall was around 200 years old and had had many owners when owners Lisa and Alex Homer first saw it. They bought it in 2010 and have worked hard ever since to restore it to its former glory.

It was the history of the estate that attracted them, as well as its setting, and now this beautiful country house, set within three acres of private grounds, is available for weddings and celebrations, private group stays, photoshoots, wellbeing weekends and retreats. It sleeps 17 in eight luxury ensuite bedrooms, and renters have the run of the house and the grounds while they stay there.

These are some lovely All Creatures Great and Small filming locations in the area.

Grassfield Hall was built by entrepreneur Teasdale Hanley Hutchinson, who had lead mines in the area. Construction began in 1801, and in 1810 Teasdale moved in with his wife, Elizabeth. In 1845, he died aged 77, leaving the house to their son, Hanley. In 1883, the estate was sold to John Yorke of the Bewerley Estate - and the first Pateley Bridge Agricultural show was held there in 1895.

In 1896 it was leased by the Collins family from Knaresborough. Major Collins, a Royal surgeon, and his wife, Olympe Amelie, who was from Mauritius, had seven children. Daughter Amy took many photographs documenting their life there, and these can now be seen at the hall.

The Yorkes sold Grassfield in 1925 and in 1928, Father Hammond moved in while his church, The Lady Immaculate, was being built. Like Mrs Pumphrey’s house, which is filmed at Broughton Hall, near Skipton, it played an important role in wartime Yorkshire. In Series 5, All Creatures Great and Small’s Pumphrey Manor was requisitioned by the army as a convalescent hospital, just as happened to many country homes during WWII, when they were used for a variety of purposes, from hosting evacuees to safely housing civil service departments. From 1939 until 1945, Grassfield Hall was a base for the 69th Field Artillery, there to protect the reservoir. The house was later turned into apartments, but in 1975, it was bought and run as a successful hotel, and remained so until it closed in 2001.

It then stood empty for nine years, under various owners, until Lisa and Alex, bought it and determined to pay tribute to its history.