Sherlockian Sojourns #87: As Seen On Screen 24 –Young Sherlock’s Ho(l)me

Having planned a visit to another 'Young Sherlock' filming location, the plan was to stop off in Bristol again to complete the scenes filmed here.

Day 1: Return to Bristol

Catching a coach from Victoria Coach Station, just over 2½ hours later, I was at Bristol Bus and Coach Station, retracing my steps from my last visit. First up was 36 Broad Street, a Grade II listed building, now a Clayton Hotel, which appeared in ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of the Killing Jar’, as the taxidermist’s shop visited by the young Beatrice Holmes (Purdy Hughes) in an attempt to identify her mysterious benefactor.

    

From here it was a ten minute walk to Queen’s Square, and Sailors Refuge, a historic house situated at #27–29, which dates from 1709–11, and is one of the few remaining houses from the original construction of the square. It is built in an early Georgian naive Palladian style, and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building (in fact until 2021 it served as the regional office for Historic England and English Heritage in the South West). It was used as the house of Professor Enright (James Sobol Kelly) which was broken into by Sherlock (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) and Moriarty (Donal Finn) in  ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of the Unarmed Man‘. Unfortunately, due to building work going on, it was covered with scaffolding.

Another fifteen minute walk brought me to The Georgian House Museum, which had been closed on my previous visit, meaning that although I had managed to take photos of the areas where Gulun Shou’an (Zine Tseng) is seen staking out the home of  Professor Roberts (Ian Mildane) in ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of the Burnt Photograph‘, the inside which appeared as the interior of the Baker Street home of Mycroft Holmes (Max Irons) in ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of the Missing Scrolls’, had been inaccessible. The museum features eleven rooms over four floors revealing what life was like above and below stairs in a Bristol sugar plantation and slave owner’s home in around 1970. Entering and giving a donation for entry, I slowly made my way around the rooms until I identified the two rooms that appeared in the episode, the Small Drawing Room and Library, with Sherlock having a bath in the former after his release from Newgate Prison, whilst Mycroft talks to him from the latter. Unfortunately, the connecting door between the two (meaning that both were seen in the same shot on screen) was locked.

 

I continued wandering around the house, which included a display focusing on Bristol’s involvement in the slave trade, before exiting the building. Having gone round a few local shops, and taken photos of the outside of my father’s boyhood school, I caught a bus down to the dock area. From here it was a five minute walk to Underfall Yard, a historic boatyard dating from 1809, which features a Visitors Centre with multiple displays about Bristol dockyards. The Yard was used to film the scenes featuring the Cheapside workshop that Gulun Shou’an follows Esad Kasgarli (Numan Acar) in ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of the Killing Jar’, with the large chimney featuring prominently.

    

Catching a bus back to the Bus and Coach Station, I had only a short wait for my coach to where I was spending the evening, Newport. The trip took only an hour, and my Guest House was only fifteen minutes from the drop-off point.

 

Day 2: ‘Appleton Manor’

The next day, I spent the morning in Newport trawling the shops, before catching a train to Abergavenny. From here it was a five minute walk to catch a bus to Skirrid Inn, one of a number of pubs claiming to be the oldest in Wales. Work undertaken by the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust has concluded that the present building is of mainly mid-late 17th century construction. However, it has been claimed that an inn had stood on the site previously, due to it being situated upon a pilgrim trail that led to the nearby Llanthony Priory; although there is no evidence to verify this.

 

From here it was a three minute walk down a side-street to the A465, and once this had been crossed, down a long drive until I reached Llanvihangel Court, a Tudor Manor House that has medieval origins dating back to at least 1471. The house appeared as ‘Appleton Manor’, the ancestral Holmes house in ‘Young Sherlock’, and also appeared as the home of Professor Digby Kirke (Michael Aldridge) in the 1998 BBC dramatisation of ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’  (featuring prominently in the recent Blu-Ray set, being where the children were evacuated to and where the titular wardrobe was located). Being a private home, the house is only open to the public at limited times, and I was initially concerned that I might have come on the wrong day due to there being no signs indicating that it was open when I pushed the large entry gate open. However, on reaching the door of the house, there was a whiteboard confirming that the first tour was at 2pm. Having time to waste, I took several photos of the outside of the house, before walking around the gardens. This brought me to the thatched timber-framed barn, built in the seventeenth century, which features in ‘Young Sherlock: The Case of Young Sherlock Holmes’.

   

      

Returning to the door in order to take advantage of the shade, the guide popped out to confirm that they would be opening the door in ten minutes (at 2pm), before popping back in. Whilst waiting, another couple arrived, and at the given time, the door was opened and we were all admitted. Having paid the entrance fee, and having been informed that there was no photography inside the house (as it is a private home), the guide introduced herself as the granddaughter of the most recent purchasers. Having run through the history of the house (sitting on sofas in the entrance hall that features prominently in TLTW&TW), we were then taken around the ground floor and the first floor, with the upper floors (including the attic which was replicated in the studio for TLTW&TW) being private. After around 45 minutes, the tour was over, and I was purchasing a postcard of the house for my collection. The guide then revealed that the house usually opens in August rather than July, but that there was filming booked. However, she wouldn't be drawn on what (but 'Young Sherlock - Series 2' is currently in production).

It was then a walk back to Skirrid Inn, getting a drink at a nearby shop, as I waited for a bus into Hereford. My original route to get home had had to be changed due to strike action by staff of one of the train companies I had been intending to use, but I was hopeful that there would be no problems. However, my bus to Hereford was ten minutes late, and on arriving at the Station, all trains were severely delayed. I ended up catching the train before the one I had intended, but it was running over fifty minutes late, and lost more time as we went on, meaning that my train pulled into Newport at exactly the time, my coach home was due to depart from a stop ten minutes away. Checking the coach tracking app, I was pleased that the coach was delayed by thirty minutes. However, on reaching the stop and checking again, it had moved to forty-five minutes. Eventually the coach pulled in an hour late, but managed to make half-an-hour back on the motorway, meaning that I only got home around forty minutes later than planned.

Sherlockian Sojourns #86: 'The Brave Berkshires'

It was a Bank Holiday, and time for another Sojourn. Making my way to Clapham Junction Station, from here it was an hour’s journey to my first port of call, Basingstoke in Hampshire. From the station it was a twenty-five minute walk to Milestones Museum, a heritage centre that recreates Victorian and 1930s streets and shops. I had visited almost a year before when they had had hosted a Half Term family mystery trail around the Victorian streets - 'Sherlock Holmes: The Adventure of the Emperor's Gold'. A year later, and again for Half Term, they were hosting a similar trail - 'Sherlock Holmes and the Missing Thornycroft Blueprint'. Even better, each entrance ticket lasts for a year, so I was able to re-use the previous year’s one. 

 

The previous year I had to all but beg for a trail booklet (being told that they were meant for children), but this year everyone young and old was being directed to meet a female ‘Mycroft’ downstairs to take part in the trail. Having been given my booklet and a pencil to complete, I walked to the first location, from which a blueprint had been stolen. There were questions at each location to identify more about how the crime was undertaken, which suspects could be discounted by items left at each location, eg. a red thread (the suspects remained the same as the previous year, but the perpetrator of this new crime was different), and a clue as to which location to go to next. There were also puzzles at each location (an addition this year) which allowed the name of the ship on which the perpetrator was fleeing justice to be identified, and additional information boards relating clues to canonical stories. It took me around forty minutes to complete my booklet, with the final puzzle which involved a lamp flashing in Morse Code being more complex than it needed to be, due to it being unclear when the letter started and ended  (luckily having five of the six letters indicated the most likely remaining letter, which proved to be correct). 

      

 

Having identified the perpetrator and ship, I had to go to a ‘Telegraph Office’ where I sent the ship’s call-sign by Morse-tapper, receiving a telegram from Holmes and a sticker once my correct answers had been confirmed.

 

Making my way back to Basingstoke Station, I had just enough time to grab some lunch from a nearby supermarket before catching a train whose air-conditioning had broken down for a forty-minute trip to Salisbury. From here it was a fifteen minute walk to Choristers Square, just next to the Cathedral, and The Rifles Berkshire and Wiltshire Museum, a public museum for the exhibition to the public, of documents, artefacts and other items connected with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Royal Regiment (Berkshire and Wiltshire) and its successor regiment, The Royal Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Light Infantry. 

   

The museum includes a section on the Battle of Maiwand, one of the principal battles of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. The battle ended in defeat for the British Army and victory for the Afghan followers of Ayub Khan. It was in this battle that Doctor John Watson received his war wound (whether that be in his arm or leg), and was thrown across a packhorse by Murray, his orderly, who succeeded in bringing him safely to the British lines, as outlined in ‘A Study in Scarlet’ [STUD].

“I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand” – Dr John H. Watson [STUD]

However, Watson could not have joined the Fifth Fusiliers at Kandahar, as outlined by him in the opening of STUD, because the regiment was never stationed there. They were part of the Peshawar Valley Field Force employed in the Khyber Pass, the Bazar Valley, Landi Kotal and Jalalabad – all in the northern territories. It is more feasible for him to have joined up with the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment whilst at Bombay, although this would have meant that he did not make it into Afghanistan until over a year later, as they marched into the southern city of Kandahar early in 1880. There was also no ‘Murray’ attached to the 66th, whereas the Fifth Fusiliers did have a Private J. Murray. Hence my attending this museum to mirror my earlier sojourn to the Fusiliers Museum of Northumberland  (see here for full write-up).

The entrance hall included a large copy of “Last Stand of the ‘Eleven’ at the Battle of Maiwand” on two banners, along with a quote from William McGonagall’s poem, ‘The Last Berkshire Eleven’.

 Giving a donation for entry, I made my way into the museum, and the ‘Battle of Maiwand’ display case which included uniforms, a pocket watch, medals, the regimental mascot Bobbie (also wounded at Maiwand) and even Jezail Afghan matchlock muskets (a bullet from one of these led to Watson being invalided out).

  

There was also mention of the medical officer for the 66th Regiment, Surgeon-Major Alexander Francis Preston, who was present at Maiwand, who shortly after the action commenced, suffered his own war wound, a bullet passed through his back, fortunately missing the spine. He was then lying on a duli (a covered stretcher) when the native duli-bearers took it up and commenced running off with him as fast as they could go, shouting as they ran along that the Ghazis were on them. The similarities between Preston and Watson are plain to see – both were surgeons with the Berkshires; both were severely wounded, albeit in different parts of the body; and both had to be rescued from the murderous enemy on the battlefield by orderlies, either native or British.

I then went round the rest of the museum, which had a focus on the two World Wars, and ended with displays relating to more recent military action featuring the Berkshires, and spent a wonderful ten minutes in the sunny garden behind. There was also a dress-up section including a Deerstalker, but unfortunately they were all in children's sizes. Purchasing a ‘Royal Berkshires’ lapel pin, I made my way back onto Choristers Close. 

  

Having wasted some time browsing the shops in Salisbury, I made my way back to the Station, where there proved to be problems with the trains. I managed to make it back to Basingstoke after a short wait, but then spent over an hour on the platform there waiting for a repeatedly delayed train back to Clapham Junction, which when it arrived took its time between Raynes Park and Clapham Junction. Eventually I alighted, catching a train home within around fifteen minutes.

Sherlockian Sojourns #85: As Seen On Screen 23 – ‘Candlin’ (Magdalen) College [‘Young Sherlock’ (2026)]

Having previously visited the Bristol locations standing in for Oxford in ‘Young Sherlock’ [2026] , it was time to journey to Oxford itself. Having spent the morning at an Anime event just outside the City Centre, meeting voices from three Sherlockian-themed Anime series – Chuck Huber (who plays Holmes in the epilogue of the Watson-led “The Empire of Corpses” [2015], and had also played the part on stage he informed me), Dallas Reid (who plays the Young Watson in “Kabukichou Sherlock” [2020]), and Jason Douglas (who plays Jefferson Hope in three episodes of “Moriarty The Patriot” [2020]) – I walked the twenty minutes back into Central Oxford, and Magdalen College.

Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, which was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England and named after St Mary Magdalene. The college succeeded a university hall called Magdalen Hall, founded by Waynflete in 1448, and from which the college drew most of its earliest scholars. The college appears as ‘Candlin College’ in ‘Young Sherlock’, being where Sherlock (Hero Fiennes Tiffin) works and Moriarty (Donal Finn) studies.

Paying for entry, I found myself in St. John’s Quad, which serves as the entrance to the College, both in reality and in the series.

My next port of call was the College Chapel, a Grade I Listed Building, which was built between 1474 and 1480, although it owes its present appearance largely to neo-Gothic works carried out in the 18th and 19th centuries. The roof, giving the impression of a stone vaulted ceiling, is in fact a facsimile made from plaster added in 1790 by neo-Gothic architect James Wyatt. As a High Anglican chapel, its tradition is influenced by the Counter-Reformation in the Church of England. It was here Gulun Shou'an (Zine Tseng) meets Esad Kasgarli (Numan Acar) in Episode 2.

    

Exiting the Chapel, I made my way through to the Cloisters which appear briefly in the early episodes, but were best known to me for a scene in the first ‘Inspector Morse’ episode ‘The Dead of Jericho‘ where Morse (John Thaw) passes Colin Dexter (making the first of his many cameos). Part of the way round was a set of stairs leading to the College Dining Hall (which features heavily in Episode 1 of ‘Young Sherlock’), but these were closed off to visitors today.

Exiting the cloisters onto the New Building Lawns, in front of me was the impressive New Building which began construction in 1733, as a part of Edward Holdsworth's designs from 1731. It is built in a Palladian style, and features a colonnade. It was conceived as one side of a new ‘Great Quadrangle’, and in anticipation of this the building's ends had been left unfinished. However, Holdsworth's full vision was never completed, and the ends of the building were finally completed in 1824 with two returns designed by Thomas Harrison. This building appeared as the ‘Hodge Science Hall’, named for Bucephalus Hodge (Colin Firth) and being where gives his lecture in Episode 1, which is curtailed when Holmes and Moriarty indicate that there is a bomb in the cellars.

    

Back in St John’s Quad, I managed to take a few photos through foliage of St. Swithun’s Quad which appears in Episode 1, as the exterior of the party crashed by Holmes and Moriarty, as this area of the college was only accessible to Fellows and Students at the college.

Exiting the College, I took a photo of the High Street Gate through which Gulun Shou’an is seen entering the College.

From here it was a fifteen minute walk to Merton Street, where Sherlock arrives in Oxford with Mycroft (Max Irons) in Episode 1, and the Gate to Corpus Christi College where Moriarty and Sherlock are standing in Episode 2.

  

 

Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to gain access to the other main Oxford locations – all parts of the Bodleian Library. Two of these, the Divinity School and the Duke Humfreys Library (the latter being from where the Princess’ scrolls are stolen in the first episode) are visitable via a guided half-hour tour, but this had sold out hours before. I therefore purchased a couple of postcards – one of Magdalen College New Building and one of the Duke Humfreys Library – before browsing the bookshops of Oxford, then catching my train home.