If you’re into cosplay and recreating your favourite SF adventures in live action, and incredibly rich, then you may be interested to know Athelhampton House, the main location for the Doctor Who story The Seeds of Doom, is on the market… for £7.5 million.

Athelhampton House, location for the filming of Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom

Athelhampton, in Dorset, just outside Puddleton, is one of the finest 15th Century manor-houses and is surrounded by one of the great architectural gardens of England.

Promotional image for Athelhampton House, location for Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom. Image: BBC

Both house and gardens were also used for the main filming location of the Doctor Who serial The Seeds of Doom back in 1975, in which the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen) found themselves pitted against plant collector Harrison Chase (Tony Beckley) who retrieves a malignant alien plant called a Krynoid from the Antarctic for himself, with disastrous consequences.

The story was the last to feature UNIT broadcast in the 1970s and is a great action-horror tale worthy of the Hammer Horror films that inspired the production team of the time.

Athelhampton House as visualised in a special effects shot for the concluding scenes of Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom. Image: BBC

Athelhampton was also used as a location for the 1972 film Sleuth, when it was owned by Robert Cooke, MP, and writer and director Julian Fellowes used the house for his children’s film From Time to Time, based on The Chimneys of Green Knowe.

The house, currently a popular visitor attraction, contains many finely furnished rooms including The Great Hall, Great Chamber, wine cellar. The Gallery in the west wing exhibits works by the Russian artist Marevna who lived at the house in the 1940s/50s.

The award-winning Grade I Listed garden, dating from around 1891, is full of vistas (but no Krynoids, hopefully), and gains much from the fountains and River Piddle flowing through. The walled gardens include the world- famous topiary pyramids and collections of tulips, roses, magnolias, clematis and lilies.

• For the rich or curious, the sales details of Athelhampton House are here on RightMove

• For those of you who want to visit go to www.athelhampton.com

• Doctor Who: The Seeds of Doom is available to buy (Amazon affiliate link)

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John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: Doctor Who, downthetubes News, Other Worlds, Television

Tags: Athelhampton House, Doctor Who, downthetubes News, The Seeds of Doom