Inside the chocolate-box Yorkshire village with a starring TV role: Exploring beautiful Grassington, where Channel 5’s All Creatures Great & Small is filmed

Channel 5’s All Creatures Great & Small is always a crowd pleaser: warm-hearted, evocative, and full of much-needed bonhomie.

And you can grab yourself some of that heartwarming fun by visiting the Yorkshire village of Grassington, where the series is filmed.

Grassington, in the Wharfedale valley, stands in for the fictional Dales town of Darrowby from James Herriot’s beloved book series It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet.

James Herriot – real name Alf Wight – was a Scottish vet who practised in Thirsk for nearly 50 years and based his books on real-life characters. 

The centre of Thirsk has changed a great deal since the 1930s and 1940s when Wight’s books were set, and so filmmakers use nearby towns and villages as stand-ins. The much-loved BBC version of the series – broadcast between 1978 and 1990 – was filmed in Wensleydale and Swaledale, with the village of Askrigg standing in for Darrowby. 

Grassington stands in for the fictional 1930s Dales town of Darrowby in the Wharfedale valley

LEFT: Carlton explains that Grassington’s real-life Devonshire Inn, pictured, is Drovers Arms in the TV series. RIGHT: A picture of the pub dressed as the Drovers Arms, as it appears in the show

I chose to stay with my wife just outside Grassington, in lovely Netherside Barn, which featured three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an outdoor deck from where you can drink in mesmerising Yorkshire views.

Best of all, it was only a short walk away from Grassington’s main cobbled square.

It is where much of the TV series is set and we visited the modern businesses that look oddly familiar. 

All Creatures Great and Small is based on James Herriot’s beloved book series It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet

James Herriot – real name Alf Wight – was a Scottish vet who practised in Thirsk for nearly 50 years and based his books on real-life characters. Above – Sedber Lane, Grassington

Thanks to its worldwide exposure, All Creatures Great & Small became a huge hit in the US during the pandemic. As a result, Grassington (above) now plays host to American visitors all year round

The Channel 5 series revolves around a trio of veterinary surgeons working in the Yorkshire Dales in the 1930s. Grassington is relatively easy to convert into a period-looking Darrowby/Thirsk, with the cobbled village square emptied of modern cars and replaced with 1930s vehicles.

The fictional Drovers Arms is, in reality, the Devonshire Inn. The Rustic Rabbit gift store is the TV show’s bakery.

The Stripey Badger book store – where you can buy All Creatures Great & Small jam and other knick-knacks — is dressed to look like wartime greengrocer Endelby’s for the TV series. And forget buying a book in Handley’s, today you’ll only find shoes.

Grassington has regularly had a starring role in film and TV productions, including  Dolittle, Wuthering Heights, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and A Boy, A Girl and A Bike.

Thanks to its worldwide exposure, All Creatures Great & Small became a huge hit in the US during the pandemic. As a result, Grassington now plays host to American visitors all year round. 

Carlton stayed in ‘lovely’ Netherside Barn (above), ‘which featured three bedrooms, two bathrooms and an outdoor deck from where you can drink in mesmerising Yorkshire views’

Netherside Barn was a short walk from the delights of Grassington, Carlton reveals

It’s hardly surprising. Travel firm Expedia states that over half of international travellers make travel plans inspired on TV shows and films.   

The UK is hugely popular with the ‘set jetting’ phenomenon, with inbound tourists spending £892.6million in 2019, according to the British Film Institute. Castle Howard in North Yorkshire reported a 3,400 per cent increase of visitors to its website after Bridgerton was released. 

If that isn’t an example of ‘set jetting’ potential, I wonder what is.