Rivals was filmed in Bristol’s Corn Street, Harbour Hotel, Cosy Club, Aerospace Bristol’s Concorde, Chavenage House, Wilton House, Battleaxes Pub in Wroxall and St Mary’s Church in Tetbury.
And the all-star cast includes David Tennant, Victoria Smurfit, Katherine Parkinson, Aidan Turner, Danny Dyer, Emily Atack, Luke Pasqualino, Nafessa Williams and Bella Maclean.
The show brings the much-loved characters to life over 30 years after they first appeared in print, along with the iconic villages, mansions and more.
Rivals Filming Locations
Disney’s Rivals filming locations include Neston Park, Chavenage House, St Mary’s Church and Berkeley House in Tebury, Aerospace Bristol, and Cosy Club and the Harbour Hotel on Bristol’s Corn Street.
The 2024 Disney Plus series is based on the 1998 book Rivals, the second volume in Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles. It follows the rivalry between Tony Baddingham and Rupert Campbell-Black (who is said to be inspired by several society figures, including Queen Camilla’s first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles).
Here’s where you can find the Rivals filming locations – including where you might have seen them before, and how to visit!
Disney Plus Rivals Locations
Where Is Rutshire?
Rutshire is fictional but it’s based on the Cotswolds – and almost all of the filming for the Disney series took place in Bristol and the South West.
Cotchester
Tetbury. Long Street, Tetbury, Gloucestershire 2015 by Ray Bird, CC BY-SA 2.0
In Disney’s Rivals, the Cotchester filming location is Tetbury, Gloucestershire. Tetbury is the second-largest town in the Cotswolds, and sits close to both King Charles’ Highgrove and Princess Anne’s Gatcombe Park estates.
Long Street’s shops were given a 1980s-style makeover for the shoot, and Poldark’s Aidan Turner was spotted in costume as Declan O’Hara on Church Street in April 2023.
More filming took place in August 2023, complete with a Cotchester village sign and banners welcoming Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. And in July 2023, scenes for Rivals were also filmed around the high street of Corsham, Wiltshire.
St Agnes and St Isaac Church
The real St Agnes and St Isaac Church in Cotchester is the Grade A-listed St Mary’s Church in Tetbury. Formally titled the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin and St Mary Magdalene, it dates back to 1781 - and it’s the only Georgian church in Gloucester.
The Priory
Chavenage House. Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0
The Rivals’ Priory location is Chavenage House, an Elizabethan mansion just outside Tetbury in the Cotswolds. In the Jilly Cooper series, The Priory is TV presenter Declan O’Hara’s (Aidan Turner) home.
Fittingly, the actor is best known for his turn as Poldark in the BBC series - Chavenage House was the same show’s Trenwith filming location for years.
But it’s Danny Dyer and David Tennant who were spotted on location at Chavenage House back in March 2023. The pair were spotted in costume as Freddie Jones and TV producer Tony Baddingham, complete with distinctively 1980s hairstyles.
Regular visits to Rivals’ The Priory location, Chavenage, have been suspended but you can pre-book a group visit by arrangement.
The Falconry
Neston Park. Stephen Richards / Neston Park, Neston
The filming location for Lord Baddingham’s home in Rivals is Neston Park, a privately owned stately home near Corsham. The 18th Century Wiltshire mansion and its estate aren’t open to the public, so make the most of their appearance.
If you’re a period drama fan, though, you may have already seen Neston Park’s grounds onscreen as a Lark Rise to Candleford filming location.
Pub
Filming for Disney’s Rivals also took place at the Battleaxes Pub in Wraxall, North Somerset. The pub has now closed permanently, and could be up for redevelopment.
So it’s hard to visit this filming location, but you can find a good substitute – there’s no shortage of celebrated pubs in the Cotswolds.
Woodbank House in Monmouthshire. Woodbank House may be in Wales, but it’s actually just across the border from the Cotswolds so not too far a distance from the Rutshire setting.
Hamilton Terrace
Berkeley House at 16 the Chipping in Tetbury is the Rivals filming location for Hamilton Terrace.
It’s a Grade II-listed building in the heart of the quintessential Cotswold town. And since Berkeley House is an 8-bedroom rental property, you can actually stay in Cameron Cook’s house from Rivals!
West End
Queen Square, Bristol. Bristol: Queen Square, with the Custom House by Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0
The West End scenes in Rivals were filmed around Bristol’s Queen Square, Corn Street and Broad Street. Locals spotted London buses complete with 80s signage advertising the destination of Marble Arch.
The Awards Ceremony
Rivals’ awards ceremony location is the Harbour Hotel Bristol at 53-55 Corn Street. It’s earned the role of stand-in for a top London hotel with its own luxury accommodation, restaurant and Gold Bar.
But there’s a quirky little secret too, because the Harbour Hotel building once housed two banks.
Hotel guests can look out for the former banking hall, and a luxury spa hidden it the old vaults.
The Club
Rivals’ club location is Bristol’s Cosy Club, where filming took place in 2023.
It’s located at 31 Corn Street, close to the Jilly Cooper adaptation’s other London filming locations.
Concorde
Corcorde 216. Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Rivals Concorde scenes were filmed at Aerospace Bristol on board Concorde 216, the last Concorde to be made and the last to fly on 26th November 2003.
Concorde 216 made its first flight on 20th April 1979, joined British Airways in 1980, and in 1986 when Rivals is set, it held the record for fastest commercial flying time from New York to London. If you’re wondering, that speedy time was 2 hours, 56 minutes and 35 seconds.
You can visit the plane from Rivals at Aerospace Bristol, alongside Filton Airfield – the spot where every British Concorde began its career. If you’re further afield but want to see how glamorous society flew in the 1980s, you can also five other Concordes around the UK.