Historic fiction...The Bishops Palace

As promised, today I am going to introduce you to The Bishops Palace.

As the name suggests, the Bishops Palace is the home to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and has been for 800 years.

The moat.

From the outside it truly looks like a fairy tale castle...well, I think so anyway.

The Palace is surrounded by a lovely little moat and it has its own gatehouse a sweet, flagstone drawbridge, and a pretty little portcullis. The grounds of the palace once included a medieval deer park. You can visit St Andrews Well, where Wells takes it name from. It is the perfect place for a picnic and there is usually a treasure hunt to keep the children entertained.

Well's Cathedral can be seen through the window.

Unsurprisingly, Wells, is often used as a location for movies. The 2007 comedy, Hot Fuzz was filmed here and more recently the sequel to Snow White and The Huntsman. I did go down and check out the set for The Huntsman. I could have spent the whole day there watching how they transformed The Bishops Palace.

They transformed the Gatehouse. 

And there were a lot of knights. It was grand to behold.

I never really stopped to consider how many people work on a set. It was buzzing. False walls were put up and the art work was so amazing that if you had not known the building previously, you would have thought that you were looking at masonry that had been there forever.

I can't wait to see the film when it comes out.

Take Care.

Mary xx