"Downtown Abbey" fans are familiar with the beautiful entrance that the Byfleet Manor grounds offer. This is known as the entrance to the home of Lady Violet Crawley, dowager countess of Grantham.
Byfleet Manor has been used as filming locations for ITV's "Downtown Abbey," in BBC series, "Cranford" and the Disney movie, "Into the Woods." The exterior part of the manor was also used as Cinderella's home.
According to The New York Times, Julie Hutton, the owner of the Byfleet Manor is known for her career on purchasing and refurbishing old and run-down properties.
Hutton shared, "I'm Welsh originally but left there when I was 18-19 to come to London." She worked first as a beauty therapist and then as a secretary and eventually became an estate agent and a mortgage broker.
"My career has been in fact purchasing properties that needed a lot of work, moving in, doing the work, and either selling or letting the properties. As soon as the lovely, shiny new work surfaces went into the kitchen, we moved out and onto the next project," says Hutton.
Hutton stayed in the Byfleet Manor for more than a decade. She renovated her family's house room by room. The main house is a 6,000 square feet of living space. Its ground area is around 18 acres which include an inlet of the River Wey and a private island. The house has eight bedrooms and four reception rooms. Its fireplaces are made of hand-painted Delft tiles.
Hutton is very proud of the changes that she made in one of the bathrooms, saying that, "It's my pride and joy."
"It took awhile to work out how to do it: When I got here, it was one of those 1960s lime-green suites," she explained.
Aside from the bathroom she also added Victorian-era chandeliers to add more light and brighten some of the rooms. When it comes to the paintings, she made sure that they fit well with the period feel of the entire house. Hutton shared that the "Downtown" drawing room was used to be white and she changed it 'in five different shades of color, and of the exact period that they wanted for 'Downton.'"
The house has its long history and it has been rebuilt over the past decades. The present Byfleet Manor was around "1686 and was requisitioned for British and Canadian officers during World War II."
And as to how Hutton renovated the house, here is what she has to say, "The house itself told me what it wanted." She added, "These older homes do that."
Meanwhile, GetSurrey reported last September 2015 that the Byfleet property has been sold for nearly £6 million ($9 million) to Noel Hayden. He is a co-founder of Gamesys, a developer of online gambling software based in London. It is yet to be known on what his plans will be for the historic property.
