Sherlock Locationing (16) "Water, water, everywhere"
For this excursion into Sherlock-land I want to take you to the countryside for a change, as seen in A Scandal in Belgravia. I'm not sure where it was supposed to actually be (hills and lakes like that near London?) but this is where your trusty locationers went to searching high into the Welsh hills above Cardiff. We visited the Talybont (or in Welsh Tal-y-bont) reservoir which was built just pre-WW2 to supply Newport with drinking water. It’s lovely sanctuary for bird and animal life in a valley in the Brecon Beacons and we owe dixiebell for finding the location for us. She cheerfully emailed me last summer to say she’d used my location identifying methods and checked every large body of water in the Cardiff environs. Sherlockology hadn’t heard of it either so they had to be informed. Glad that people can learn from what I am doing, and well done that woman for getting the official site in the know.
Once I’d got the location of the location fixed in my head I told bf our next trip over to Cardiff was in planning and it had this on the itinerary. I have a feeling that so long as Sherlock goes on and films in these places this city is going to feature as a regular stop for the next few years at least. I am not complaining, I'm learning more about the area around it as we go back each time and getting to like it more.
So, we visited this resevoir location over college half term this June and stopped as a detour on our way home The weather which had been glorious all weekend (and even given me sunburn while hunting Lauriston Gardens in 'Brixton') had become Welsh-typical pouring rain. I’d chosen the most difficult access method possible too. I'd set my heart on a scenic drive and we drove up all the smallest roads and the steepest hills after negotiating the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil. We also met a classic Volvo rally on the slopes, and as some of the hills were nearly vertical I am realising garienos' little Peugeot did very well getting up them. I am also sure the film crew originally got to this place by an easier route (and yes, post visit, I have worked that one out in case we go back).
Here is the reservoir’s position in relation to Cardiff
And here is the location spot used at a bigger scale in on the Ordinance Survey 1:25,000 map:
Once we’d got the car back onto flatter ground in the valley
garienos and I stopped to have a look at the remains of a chapel. This was on the way the location and I wanted a look at it also. As it was built was near a spring and had a pretty ancient yew tree next to it, this probably means it was a very old site. The very large yew, plus the fact that there was a water source nearby, means it mignt have been a site associated with an early (Welsh) Celtic Christian saint. They liked to live out in the wilds and near water to use if for baptism of their native converts …
Only slightly further along this road we get to the Sherlock location. A view from above courtesy of Bing Birds eye view, looks a little more familiar and shows why our film crew were using it as the road has space both to the east and west of the opened gate for everyone to park and set up.
Having looked again at this part of the episode as I was sorting through to take screen grabs a couple of things pointed themselves out to me. The first thing is how the overhead shot here very nicely hides the parking spaces to the west of the location; were we a little further right in this picture I am sure we’d be seeing cars in view. The other thing is those orange barriers looking very familiar. I’m not sure if they have turned up on camera before, but when I was taking photos of filming in Gower Street in April they were very much in evidence being used to keep control of the fans!
When
garienos and I visited Tal-y-bont the first thing for us to do was park the car and then I jumped out and opened the gate to recreate the exact situation. The ground it was on a slant and it kept shutting itself and I did wonder what the film crew did to keep it where it should be. As witheverything in Wales the warning signs were dual language too, and this one told us of the dangers we were facing. The fact that it's not present on screen, and the screws holding it on the fence here there look fairly new, makes me think it got taken off for filmingand screwed back on again after our friends went.
The first thing **I** also thought when I looked through the gate was; ‘Oh dear our location is mostly under water’. I can explain, this is on the site of a reservoir after all ...
When filming happened in 2011 Britain was at the end of a very dry spell (they driest winter on record apparently) and we were in for another summer of Hosepipe Bans. That left a fairly large area that should have been covered by water uncovered for filming and creating a nice lawn' for filming people to stand on. You can see how much was left dry in the overhead view earlier in this post. The year following this, 2012, was very wet despite the London Olympics managing not to get washed out. Add in last winter, which was very snowy in Wales indeed, and that provides all the water we saw in early June 2013.
Where is the "stream" which the boomerang is supposed to have swept away down? No sight of that now, as it was the rather dried up entry channel of the river Caerfanell which names the valley the reservoir is in and provides the main water source for it. We had water lapping pretty much at the foot of the slope the camera spent a lot of time at the bottom of. Next time I get there I will take my shoes off and go for a paddle to get the correct shot!
p.s. That IS a bird hide in the background so dead hiker COULD have been bird watching as Irene suggested ;-)
Once I’d got the location of the location fixed in my head I told bf our next trip over to Cardiff was in planning and it had this on the itinerary. I have a feeling that so long as Sherlock goes on and films in these places this city is going to feature as a regular stop for the next few years at least. I am not complaining, I'm learning more about the area around it as we go back each time and getting to like it more.
So, we visited this resevoir location over college half term this June and stopped as a detour on our way home The weather which had been glorious all weekend (and even given me sunburn while hunting Lauriston Gardens in 'Brixton') had become Welsh-typical pouring rain. I’d chosen the most difficult access method possible too. I'd set my heart on a scenic drive and we drove up all the smallest roads and the steepest hills after negotiating the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil. We also met a classic Volvo rally on the slopes, and as some of the hills were nearly vertical I am realising garienos' little Peugeot did very well getting up them. I am also sure the film crew originally got to this place by an easier route (and yes, post visit, I have worked that one out in case we go back).
Here is the reservoir’s position in relation to Cardiff
And here is the location spot used at a bigger scale in on the Ordinance Survey 1:25,000 map:
Once we’d got the car back onto flatter ground in the valley
garienos and I stopped to have a look at the remains of a chapel. This was on the way the location and I wanted a look at it also. As it was built was near a spring and had a pretty ancient yew tree next to it, this probably means it was a very old site. The very large yew, plus the fact that there was a water source nearby, means it mignt have been a site associated with an early (Welsh) Celtic Christian saint. They liked to live out in the wilds and near water to use if for baptism of their native converts …
Only slightly further along this road we get to the Sherlock location. A view from above courtesy of Bing Birds eye view, looks a little more familiar and shows why our film crew were using it as the road has space both to the east and west of the opened gate for everyone to park and set up.
Having looked again at this part of the episode as I was sorting through to take screen grabs a couple of things pointed themselves out to me. The first thing is how the overhead shot here very nicely hides the parking spaces to the west of the location; were we a little further right in this picture I am sure we’d be seeing cars in view. The other thing is those orange barriers looking very familiar. I’m not sure if they have turned up on camera before, but when I was taking photos of filming in Gower Street in April they were very much in evidence being used to keep control of the fans!
When
garienos and I visited Tal-y-bont the first thing for us to do was park the car and then I jumped out and opened the gate to recreate the exact situation. The ground it was on a slant and it kept shutting itself and I did wonder what the film crew did to keep it where it should be. As witheverything in Wales the warning signs were dual language too, and this one told us of the dangers we were facing. The fact that it's not present on screen, and the screws holding it on the fence here there look fairly new, makes me think it got taken off for filmingand screwed back on again after our friends went.
The first thing **I** also thought when I looked through the gate was; ‘Oh dear our location is mostly under water’. I can explain, this is on the site of a reservoir after all ...
When filming happened in 2011 Britain was at the end of a very dry spell (they driest winter on record apparently) and we were in for another summer of Hosepipe Bans. That left a fairly large area that should have been covered by water uncovered for filming and creating a nice lawn' for filming people to stand on. You can see how much was left dry in the overhead view earlier in this post. The year following this, 2012, was very wet despite the London Olympics managing not to get washed out. Add in last winter, which was very snowy in Wales indeed, and that provides all the water we saw in early June 2013.
Where is the "stream" which the boomerang is supposed to have swept away down? No sight of that now, as it was the rather dried up entry channel of the river Caerfanell which names the valley the reservoir is in and provides the main water source for it. We had water lapping pretty much at the foot of the slope the camera spent a lot of time at the bottom of. Next time I get there I will take my shoes off and go for a paddle to get the correct shot!
p.s. That IS a bird hide in the background so dead hiker COULD have been bird watching as Irene suggested ;-)