Notes etc on the locations used in the 1971 film

Dulcima

Edited by Bob Meade

From Carol White’s Autobiography: Carol Comes home (1982)

“I signed to make the award winning Dulcima, a story written by H.E. Bates & adapted by Frank Nesbitt & co-starring John Mills, one of my all-time favourite actors. I spent hours each day going over my part & I even studied the scenes I  wasn’t in. It was a heavy going romantic drama and, with the script steeped in the Cotswold’s dialect, it wasn’t an easy part. But by the time filming had commenced, I had found my way into the heart of the character, the lines had all filed into place & I had started to feel whole again”

 “I met John Mills for the first time in the middle of June, when we started work on the film. He was dressed as a ragged yokel, a straw in his mouth, his hair all over the place and his dark, inquisitive eyes roaming the quilt-patterned landscape. It was wonderful to be out in the country, a hint of mist on the distant hills, the tree lined fields and England at it’s best. Working was the real cure. The crew and cast clicked immediately and the only time I felt a bit let down was when the weekend came & we all packed up & went home.

 John sensed this & at the end of the second week, he took me back to Richmond, so that he & his wife, Mary could play Mum & Dad. I slept in Hayley Mill’s four-poster bed, I was served breakfast on a silver tray & for a few days we all lived our own little fantasy”

 “I was cocooned in the tiny village of Tetbury, in a beautiful, sixteenth century inn, the English countryside & my work on Dulcima combining to make me enjoy my life again. I enjoyed Frank Nesbitt’s Zany wit, as well as the company of Sir John & his lovely wife Mary, although sometimes, only sometimes, I missed the mad, mad world of Hollywood” (Slightly edited by Bob)

Footnote: The late 1970s saw Carol’s career dwindle, drug & drink addiction replaced her acting. She died forgotten & unknown 16th Sept 1991 aged 49. Some say from Cirrhosis of the liver, others say from a drug overdose, or just maybe a broken heart.

 

Nigel Furness comments: "Shot in and around Tetbury, Stroud and Minchinhampton in Gloucestershire. Carol White travels to Stroud in a Bristol SUL4A, very authentically dressed in Bristol Omnibus' 1965-71 livery, even down to the yellow Northern Operating Area fleet number plates (number cannot be discerned in the film). This bus is a bit of an enigma; it is very accurately portrayed except of course that Bristol did not operate this type of vehicle (it did have the SUS type, which did operate in the Stroud valleys). Its registration also is clearly visible in one shot and as I recall writing it down. It includes the area letters EA (West Bromwich) and is clearly made up so the actual identity of this bus is a mystery to me. I suspect it is an ex-Western/Southern National vehicle prepared by Bristol Omnibus on behalf of the film company, but that’s just a guess..."

I wasn't here in 1971 but I understand that some of the filming took place in our tiny shop which was then a café [Bob’s note: This would be where Dulcima had a meal on Market day but see below also]

House of Cheese
Church Street
Tetbury
Gloucestershire
GL8 8JG
UK
Website: www.houseofcheese.co.uk

Update, from Richard Jeffreys (of Tetbury), July 05.

The location of the café that Dulcima visited on market day was not actually the shop that is now called the House of Cheese, but the place next door!!

Although the House of Cheese is very small, and the café appeared very small in the scene, the two were not the same. At the time of filming, the café was called: The Maple Leaf Café. When the café owners sold up, the premises then became Tetbury's first Chinese takeaway called the Oriental Takeaway, I believe it is still a takeaway currently known as Imperial Cuisine.

Getting back to the film, the woman in the background of the café scene wiping down the shelves is a family friend, and her daughter (who was also in my class at school) played one of Dulcima's sisters - she's the tall one with long blonde hair, wearing a black jumper, and strange as it may seem, a pair of my jeans!

The location for the Gamekeepers shack was in woods within Estcourt Park, which were at the time accessible to the public, but the whole area is now only accessible via a private road. Escourt Park is just off the B4014 between Tetbury and Long Newton. The original open stone structure or folly was added to substantially to make the shack, as there were no windows and only a back wall in the original.

I was in the sixth form at Sir William Romney’s School in Tetbury when the film was made so missed out on seeing a lot of the filming, though we did have the honour of being visited one day by Mary Hayley Bell ( John Mill’s wife ) who gave us a talk on writing and answered our questions ( though we were instructed not to mention her daughter Hayley as she was having a few "romantic difficulties" at the time) and then she stayed to have lunch with us.

Email from Bob: [farm info removed on request from current owners, further text added]

With Sheila 29th Dec 04: A few miles from Tetbury:

 Made it today to the principle location used in Dulcima
(S……….. farm) Much modernised, but very recognisable, the concrete support near the pram & henhouse is still there - the owner permitted us to film around the farmyard exteriors.

The current owners of S……..farm told us, that Dulcima had been filmed shortly after the then owner (a bit of a recluse though father of 10 children!) had passed away, he sounded to us a bit like Mr Parker.  The old farm implements buried in the grass were probably his.

 Some of the Kitchen scenes were certainly filmed at the farm, though most other scenes were studio creations. No trace has been found of the tins of £5 notes!

 The fields & woods beyond, where “Albert” lived have changed very little. Following lunch, in a pub with 8 cats! Sheila & myself went on to Tetbury with the auction yard now having new houses being built on the site!
Then on to Minchinhampton, yes again very recognisable & very quiet today.

 

[From Tim Hobbs]

As a boy I can remember them filming it in my home village of Minchinhampton. I can now spend Christmas picking out the locals in the film with my relatives and old friends.

Good to hear that you found the farm. I think the approach to it with the milk churns was actually filmed between Minchinhampton and Nailsworth - if you go down Well Hill (with the drapery shop in the film on the corner) before you get to the Weighbridge Pub, you will see a track going off to what we used to call Devil's Elbow on the right. That's where the milk churns were. Above what used to be Longford's School.

The pub scenes were in my old local The Crown at Minchinhampton (opposite the Market House where the bus scene was filmed).

 

A lot of the action was in Minchinhampton (see: http://www.busstation.net/screen/screenfmd.htm for confirmation of the bus stop in the market square). My Mum was working in Ogdens (drapery shop, became Murrays. on the crossroads. It's in the film. An older boy in the village Andy Brooks is in the scene where the dress is bought). My Mum got John Mills' autograph at the time. Also see: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067027/combined to get a list of other venues. Over the next few days I will be showing the film to a few more "old" locals as the list of locations could do with updating. Even in the opening credits I can see two places I recognise: Burleigh Hill (driving down from Tom Long's Post on the common down to Brimscombe, and the hill at Avening (just past the Weighbridge pub on the way to Tetbury.

[From Amanda Hooper]

My parents were both youngsters in Tetbury when it was made, and my grandparents owned and ran the Close Hotel where the leads stayed during the filming. In consequence, both of them appear in the film, my grandmother on the bus that Carol takes and my grandfather is the man with the white moustache and tweeds who bids in the auction scene.  I’d really like to give this DVD as a gift to my parents as it shows so much of the town they grew up in.

 

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