Home Fires: Go on a day trip to the real Great Paxford
The ITV period drama was shot in the picturesque village of Bunbury
Set in a small Cheshire village, Home Fires follows a group of women who keep their community going when the men in their lives go off to fight in World War II.
After a nationwide search for an appropriate location, the cast and crew fell for the quaint period properties in the village of Bunbury village, which sits on the Shropshire Union Canal near Tarporley and Nantwich.
"We chose to film in Cheshire because it's very beautiful," explains executive producer Catherine Oldfield. "We looked all over Britain. The architecture of Cheshire is very distinctive and we really wanted to create a sense of this working community."
War is something the real-life village of Bunbury knows about all too well; in 1940 it was attacked by a German aircraft returning from a night raid on Liverpool. The plane dropped surplus bombs over the village, destroying shops to a point beyond repair.
*Video courtesy of Creative England
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Fans of the show can take a walk around the area, learn more about the history of the village and explore the setting of the series. Local butchers R.P Burrows is used on screen in the series, as are many streets and local farms. Other attractions include the beautiful St Boniface church, dating back to the 14th century, which houses wall paintings of saints and monuments of important figures from the area.
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Visitors can also explore the nearby water mill, built in 1844, take a walk along the pretty Shropshire Union Canal, or hole up at one of the many drinking establishments in the area. The cast and crew particularly enjoyed Tilly’s Café, The Dysart Arms, The Cholmondeley Arms, the Yew Tree Inn and the Nags Head pub.
Other TV shows filmed in Cheshire include Channel 4’s The Mill, which is about 19th century textile mill workers, and more recently Disney's Evermoor series about an American teen who moves to an English village full of mysteries.
Home Fires is on Sundays on ITV at 9pm. Read more about Home Fires here. Find out more about English filming locations at Creative England.
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