Written by new-contact on Jul 17, 2012. Posted in On Location

County Armagh stately home chosen for Dickens BBC TV drama

A stately home in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, has been used for scenes for a new BBC TV adaptation of Dickens classic Nicholas Nickleby. Brownlow House is known locally as Lurgan Castle and dates back to the mid-19th Century.

Producer Roy Gilpin had made a note of the location at a family event in 2011 and at the end of June this year the BBC made arrangements for a three-day shoot, the Lurgan Mail reports. Robert Odgers runs the function rooms at the castle and spoke to the outlet: “The tea room was closed for three days for filming. They turned it into an up-market gentleman’s club where they filmed about ten scenes.

It was all done with the permission of the trustees. They used heritage colours so we’ve been able to keep the room as they left it.

Robert Odgers, Brownlow House

“They also used what we call the ‘rent room’ where (original resident) Lord Brownlow would have collected the rent. They painted it and put curtains up in it so it looked like a quiet corner in the bar. It was all done with the permission of the trustees. They used heritage colours so we’ve been able to keep the room as they left it.”

Brownlow is built in an Elizabethan style from Scottish sandstone and was used as military headquarters in both world wars in the first half of the 20th Century. It’s currently owned by Lurgan Loyal Orange District Lodge.

(Main page image: Alistair Rae)