‘Saltburn’ Mansion ensures that film fans flock to the English countryside

Drayton House, a private mansion with more than a hundred rooms, has stood in Northamptonshire, England, for almost 700 years.

For most of those seven centuries, the manor was a silent presence in the countryside, known mainly to locals or experts with a penchant for viewing beautiful houses owned by England’s upper class.

But that tranquility has changed since the release of ‘Saltburn’ in November. Although the film failed to impress critics, it has generated a flood of memes, jokes and comments online.

And a pilgrimage to this once tranquil estate was made even easier after Rhian Williams, who lives nearby, posted detailed directions to the house on a TikTok. video on New Year’s Day. Her clip was eventually viewed more than 5.5 million times. Since then she has made more videos, including another visit to the house and a visit to the local pub.

“I don’t have a lot of followers on TikTok,” Ms. Williams said in a telephone interview. “I didn’t predict it,” she said.

The house is located in the center of ‘Saltburn’, the Catton family home of the same name where Oliver Quick, played by Barry Keoghan, spends the summer. Many of the film’s most memorable scenes take place inside the house and on the property’s extensive, lush grounds.

Vanity fair reported last summer that, as a condition of using the estate, the filmmakers were not allowed to reveal its location or its owner. But in August, just before the film’s premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado, the British magazine Tatler identified the house based on a closer look at the trailer.

Drayton House, a Grade I building listed for its historic character, has been privately owned for hundreds of years. The property has changed through inheritance over the centuries and is currently owned by Charles Stopford Sackville, who inherited the house from his father.

The house has been owned by the Sackville family since the late 18th century, when it was inherited by Lord George Sackville, according to Historic England, the public organization that keeps track of such buildings.

The current owner is reportedly unhappy with all the attention his house is receiving, but that’s telling The British newspaper The Daily Mail reported this on Sunday, “How would you feel if people took pictures outside your house?” Drayton Estate Office, based in the same town, declined to comment.

Although the house is visible from a public sidewalk, some visitors have tried to get closer, Ms. Williams said, resorting to fences or other methods to get too close to the private home. (Ms. Williams said she has not encountered any trespassers during her visits.) Others have posted videos of their own visits to TikTok, with many posing in front of the gate through which Mr. Keoghan’s character enters his life-changing summer.

England is dotted with dramatic, stately homes, some of which have hosted film productions – and the tourists that come with them. Chatsworth House appeared in “Peaky Blinders” and the 2005 version of “Pride and Prejudice” and other productions. Highclere Castle, the house at the center of “Downton Abbey” is open to the public.

The popularity of “Saltburn” has brought hundreds of tourists to a part of the country that is not normally busy, especially in the dark winter months. Steven Hyare, the manager of local pub Snooty Fox, said he had seen a steady increase in visitors since the film was released late last year.

Early January 2023 was a quiet time, he said. This year, the weekends in his establishments are fully booked two weeks in advance. Many of the guests are younger than his usual clientele, Mr. Hyare said.

Mr Hyare said that while he welcomed the increased business from “Saltburn” tourists and younger visitors, he had no plans to do anything differently. “We don’t sell T-shirts outside,” he said.