Welcome to Welford Park: the stunning Berkshire location where The Great British Bake Off is filmed
The Great British Bake Off has raised its bright, white marquee of destiny in picturesque piles around the country since 2010. But when the show moved from BBC Two to BBC One, so the Bake Off cast and crew set up shop in the gardens of Welford Park, a country house in Berkshire, and the tent has stayed put following the show's move to Channel 4.
The current tenth series was also filmed at the grand country estate. It opens to the public but once a year, between January and March, to show off the display of snowdrops for which Welford Park is known.
The marquee is raised on the grounds in April, and stands there for 10 weeks as the competition unfolds. Unlike other competitive reality TV shows, such as The Apprentice, each episode of the Bake Off is filmed over a weekend. Contestants, judges and crew stay at nearby hotels before going back to their non-TV lives during the week.
Deborah Puxley, who lives at Welford Park with her husband, who inherited the pile in 1997, and their two children, said that the Bake Off entered the equation after Welford Park's agent "got talking to someone at a party". The show's crew moved in three weeks later and took just three days to erect the tent, lay the flooring and install each contestant's little kitchen.
What the team "really liked" about the grounds between spring and summer was that they were "changing all the time, giving a different palette of colours every week”, she told The Sunday Times.
But the crew didn't just take over Welford Park's lawns. For three months Deborah catered for the production team in the cafeteria which caters for the thousands of guests who visit the estate's snowdrops every winter. The tearoom acted as production room and the Puxley's enormous dining room acted as the green room.
Puxley's lasagne was a particular favourite, and she was allowed to sample some of the contestant's bakes at the end of a day's filming.
If former judge Mary Berry spent most of her time in the previous Bake Off estate, Harptree Court, "clinging to the Aga", the Bake Off judge spent far more time enjoying Welford's gardens, namely the one where contestants are interviewed about their performance each day.
Berry reported that she and Puxley "would often walk around here when there was a break in filming, chatting and deadheading the roses".
Welford Park was built in 1652 for the grandson of the Lord Mayor of London between 1620-1, Sir Francis Jones Kt. There followed a series of additions in the 18th and 19th century, namely some columns, a kitchen block and the really large dining room. Such dedication to gastronomy perhaps suggests Welford Park was fated to host a baking show several hundred years in the future.
The Bake Off's move from BBC One to Channel 4 might have been controversial, but it's nothing to the local area's thorny relationship with baking, which dates back to the 14th century. At the time, a monastery and small village stood on the land now occupied by the estate. A record was found dating from 1337 which detailed how to make a wastell loaf – a fancy type of white bread, eaten only by higher classes – and a simnel cake.
The assize wasn't merely a recipe, but strict instructions on what should go into different type of breads, to avoid bakers scamming their customers by mixing in cheaper grains such as bran or selling loaves smaller than they should be.
A suspicious-looking baker who was found to be cheating would have their wares tasted in court. The guilty would face a fine and maybe even the stocks. It's highly unlikely that a Bake Off contestant would ever attempt such a scam.
