The Moonraker , 1958
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
Kent: Leeds Castle, four miles east of Maidstone (tel: 01622.765400) on the B2163 (rail: Bearsted, South Eastern from London Victoria)
Wiltshire: Lacock Abbey, three miles from Chippenham (Great Western Main Line from London Paddington)
Visit: Stonehenge.
Trivia
Stonehenge also appears in classic Fifties chiller Night of the Demon
Leeds Castle is home to the d’Ascoyne family in Kind Hearts and Coronets
See the Harry Potter films to see the interior of Lacock Abbey as ‘Hogwarts’ classrooms.
The Moonraker location: The headquarters of Oliver Cromwell: Leeds Castle, Kent
Not to be confused with the similarly-titled 1979 Bond movie, The Moonraker is a colourful Civil War swashbuckling suspenser.
The opening scene, with Cavalier Earl of Dawlish (George Baker) meeting his fellow conspirators, is at Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire. There is a Bond connection. George Baker, who appears as heraldry expert Sir Hilary Bray in Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, was once in the frame to play 007.
The HQ of Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell (John Le Mesurier) is Leeds Castle, east of Maidstone, Kent, most famous on screen as the home of the aristocratic d’Ascoyne family in the Ealing classic Kind Hearts and Coronets.
The Moonraker location: The Royalist house: Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
The Royalist house raided by Cromwell’s troops is also more famous from another film. Lacock Abbey in Wiltshire, is one of the Hogwarts locations in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
