Dame Margaret Natalie Smith was a British actress known for her wit in both comedic and dramatic roles. She had an extensive career on stage and screen for over seven decades and was one of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actresses. She received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, four Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for six Olivier Awards. Smith is one of the few performers to earn the Triple Crown of Acting.
Milton Abbey School is a private school for day and boarding pupils in the village of Milton Abbas, near Blandford Forum in Dorset, in South West England. It has 224 pupils as of September 2023, in five houses: Athelstan, Damer, Hambro, Hodgkinson and Tregonwell. The school was founded in 1954 and is co-educational.
Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and Wisley Commons form a large proportion of the parish on a high acid heathland, which is a rare soil type providing for its own types of habitat. It has a standard weather monitoring station, which has recorded some national record high temperatures.
Cobham is a village in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, centred 17 miles (27 km) south-west of London and 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Guildford on the River Mole. It has a commercial/services High Street, a significant number of primary and private schools and the Painshill landscape park.
Milton Abbas is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, lying around 5 miles southwest of Blandford Forum. In the 2011 Census the civil parish had a population of 755.
Chobham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England.
Highclere Castle is a Grade I listed country house built in 1679 and largely renovated in the 1840s, with a park designed by Capability Brown in the 18th century. The 5,000-acre (2,000 ha) estate is in Highclere in Hampshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) south of Newbury, Berkshire, and 9.5 miles (15 km) north of Andover, Hampshire. The 19th-century renovation is in a Jacobethan and Italianate style produced by architect Charles Barry. It is the country seat of the Earls of Carnarvon, a branch of the Anglo-Welsh Herbert family.
A dower house is usually a moderately large house available for use by the widow of the previous owner of an English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish estate. The widow, often known as the "dowager", usually moves into the dower house from the larger family house on the death of her husband if the heir is married, and upon his marriage if he was single at his succession. The new heir then occupies the vacated principal house.
Pyrford is a village in the borough of Woking in Surrey, England. It is on the left bank of the River Wey, around two miles east of the town of Woking and just south of West Byfleet; the M25 motorway is northeast of the edge of the former parish.
Deepcut is a village in the borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately 28 mi (45 km) southwest of central London. The nearest towns are Camberley, Surrey and Farnborough, Hampshire. Deepcut is named after the excavations required for the building of the Basingstoke Canal during the 1790s, although the village dates primarily from the early 20th century.
Byfleet is a village in Surrey, England. It is located in the far east of the borough of Woking, around 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east of West Byfleet, from which it is separated by the M25 motorway and the Wey Navigation.
Sundridge is a village within the civil parish of Sundridge with Ide Hill, in the Sevenoaks district of Kent, England. The village is located on the A25 road to the east of Westerham. It lies within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within London’s Metropolitan Green Belt. It is approximately 21 miles south of London. Its church is Anglican and dedicated to St Mary.
Thorpe is a village in northwest Surrey, England, around 20 miles (32 km) west of central London. It is in the Borough of Runnymede, between Egham, Virginia Water and Chertsey. It is adjacent to the M25, near the M3 — its ward covers 856 hectares (3.3 sq mi). Its traditional area with natural boundaries covers one square mile less. Thorpe is a former civil parish.
Sir John Whittaker Ellis, 1st Baronet was Lord Mayor of London for 1881–82, in which year he was made a baronet. Two years later he was elected and re-elected Conservative Member of Parliament for eight years, not seeking further re-election. A very prosperous banking executive, estate agent and auctioneer among his legacies was a fire station at Byfleet, Surrey; he sat on the boards of various hospitals and his wife was also engaged in charities.
Kempton Park, England formerly an expanded manor known as Kempton, Kenton and other forms, today refers to the land owned by the Jockey Club: Kempton Park nature reserve and Kempton Park Racecourse in the Spelthorne district of Surrey. Today's landholding was the heart of, throughout the Medieval period, a private parkland – and its location along with its being a royal manor rather than ecclesiastic, or high-nobility manor led to some occasional residence by Henry III and three centuries later hunting among a much larger chase by Henry VIII and his short-reigned son, Edward VI.
Newark Priory is a ruined priory on an island surrounded by the River Wey and its former leat near the boundary of the village of Ripley and Pyrford in Surrey, England.
Littleton is a village in the borough of Spelthorne, approximately 16 mi (26 km) west of central London. Historically part of the county of Middlesex, it was transferred to Surrey in 1965. It is the location of Shepperton Studios.
Seale is a village in Surrey, England. Seale covers most of the civil parish of Seale and Sands and the steep slope and foot of the south side of the Hog's Back as well as a large hill which exceeds it – as such is part of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Woking is a town and borough in northwest Surrey, England, around 23 mi (36 km) from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as Wochinges, and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Paleolithic, but the low fertility of the sandy local soils meant that the area was the least populated part of the county in 1086. Between the mid-17th and mid-19th centuries, new transport links were constructed, including the Wey Navigation, Basingstoke Canal and London to Southampton railway line. The modern town was established in the mid-1860s, as the London Necropolis Company began to sell surplus land surrounding the railway station for development.
Downton Abbey is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for fifty-two episodes across six series, including five Christmas specials.
