All Creatures Great and Small filming locations: Yorkshire Dales pubs, railway stations, estates and shops to visit for free that are featured in the popular Channel 5 and BBC adaptations

All Creatures Great and Small was inspired by Yorkshire vet Alf Wight’s memoirs, under the pen name James Herriot, and has been adapted into two TV shows, one in 1978 on BBC and a recent Channel 5 series starring Nicholas Ralph, Rachel Shenton and Samuel West which began in 2020.

Both adaptations filmed in the Yorkshire Dales have used idyllic landmarks and local establishments as filming locations.

The original series starred Christopher Timothy as Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried Farnon and both Carol Drinkwater and Lynda Bellingham who played the role of Helen, Herriot’s wife.

All exterior scenes filmed during the BBC show were in North Yorkshire, mostly in the village of Askrigg, which doubled for the fictional Darrowby, and Bainbridge as well as Addlebrough and other locations included Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Wensleydale. However, most scenes were filmed around Leyburn.

The Channel 5 show is predominantly filmed around Nidderdale and the village of Grassington in Upper Wharfedale was used for the fictional village of Darrowby.

Yorkshire pubs, railways and shops to visit featured in All Creatures Great and Small

Goathland Railway

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway was featured in the episode ‘City Slicker’ from the original series in the 1970s.

The station is on the deviation line opened by the North Eastern Railway in 1865 to avoid the cable-worked Beckhole Incline, which was part of the original 1936 Whitby and Pickering Railway route.

It was originally opened as Goathland Mill, and was named due to its proximity to the watermill on the Murk Esk river parallel to the station.

The railway route was closed to passenger traffic in 1965 after it was deemed uneconomic as part of the Beeching cuts, but was reopened in 1973 as part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.

The Red Lion Langthwaite

The inside and outside of the historic pub was used to film various episodes between 1977 and 1991.

It dates back to the 17th century and has been under the ownership of Rowena Hutchinson for 44 years. She runs the pub with her sister Marguerita Barningham.

Their parents, Daniel and Margaret Winkefield, bought The Red Lion in 1964.

The Devonshire Inn

The Grassington pub has been used to film the Channel 5 show since it premiered in 2020.

It was bought by Timothy Taylor’s in the summer of 2015 and after an elaborate renovation programme it was reopened in December that year.

Mat and Kirsty Wilson became the new tenants in January 2019.

The Green Dragon Inn Hardraw

The pub is located by the famous waterfall Hardraw Force and has been featured as the interior of fictional pub Drovers Arms on All Creatures Great and Small since it first aired in 2020.

It is thought to date back to the 13th century, which makes it one of the oldest pubs in the Yorkshire Dales and is famous for being the entrance to Hardraw Force, England’s highest single drop waterfall falling at 100 feet.

Walker’s Bakery

The local bakery and chocolatier is transformed into Darrowby Cycles for each season of the 2020 adaptation.

Rob Walker has been baking bread since he left school and he first established the bakery in 1993, moving to the present premises in Skipton in 1997.

His chocolate business was opened three years later, with the second bakery shop in Grassington in 2007.

Broughton Hall

The Skipton estate was used to film Mrs Pumphrey’s residence, along with her dog Tricki Woo in the 2020 series.

Broughton Hall Estate has been owned by the same family for 900 years and the Grade I listed hall dates back to 1597.

It was designed by William Atkinson, the architect behind Durham Cathedral.

The Stripey Badger

The Grassington bookshop is transformed into the greengrocers G F Endleby, the shoe shop Helen Midgley was used for Handleys Booksellers

It is owned by Linda Furniss who always wanted to work in a bookshop since she was a teenager. She had lived in Cumbria for 15 years before she moved to the Yorkshire Dales and decided to pursue her dream.

After months of searching for a job at a bookshop, she decided to take the leap and bought a property in Grassington in 2018, which she turned into the now popular Stripey Badger.

It has since become a huge success, particularly since it was used to film the Channel 5 series.

Keighley and Worth Valley Railway

In the first episode of All Creatures Great and Small (2020), James Herriot says goodbye to his parents before he boards a train to Glasgow. The scene is filmed at Keighley station.

The station first opened on a site slightly further up the line in March 1847 by the Leeds and Bradford Extension Railway.