The second half of Rivals series two lands on Disney+ on 11 November, and the show’s fictional 80s county of Rutshire is very much real — just wearing a different name. The raunchy Jilly Cooper adaptation was shot largely across the Cotswolds, spilling into Wiltshire, Somerset and even Malaga.
The stand-out address is Chavenage House near Tetbury, the Elizabethan manor (built 1576) that plays Declan O’Hara’s family home, “The Priory”. Poldark fans may recognise it, and unlike many filming locations it’s open to visitors — £12 per person by reservation. Tetbury itself doubled as the show’s village of Cotchester, with shopfronts redressed and Thatcher-era banners added; it sits close to Highgrove House, King Charles’s former home. A Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse in town, Berkeley House on The Chipping, served as American producer Cameron Cook’s residence.
Lord Tony Baddingham’s mansion, “The Falconry”, is Neston Park in Wiltshire, a c.1790 listed estate that hosts the show’s garden parties and helicopter landings — though it’s not open to the public. The market town of Corsham chipped in as a second Cotchester, and the pub doubling as a Rutshire restaurant, the Battleaxes at Wraxall, reopened in 2025 as The Temperance House, a business retreat.
Bristol does heavy lifting too: the preserved Concorde at Aerospace Bristol hosted the series’ infamous opening scene, Corn Street stood in for London, and the show was the first production to use the new TBY2 facilities at The Bottle Yard Studios, complete with replica 80s TV studios. In Somerset, the East Somerset Railway’s Cranmore station played host to Freddie and Lizzie’s rail-side romance — heritage steam trains run there on Wednesdays and weekends, plus afternoon tea and Thomas-themed specials.
Series two adds proper polo: close-ups of the Rutshire Cup were shot at the Beaufort Polo Club near Tetbury (founded 1872, with summer weekday matches typically free to watch), while much of the match itself unfolded on a purpose-built pitch in the grounds of Berkeley Castle, a Norman fortress from 1153 that welcomes visitors with tours, a cafe and gift shop. Rupert Campbell-Black’s pile, Penscombe Court, is actually Ammerdown House in Kilmersdon, a 1788 Grade I listed home still lived in by Lord Hylton — sadly not visitable. And for fans of episode six’s Spanish detour, Cameron and Rupert’s balcony glances were exchanged at the five-star Grand Hotel Las Dunas in Estepona, with further scenes around Malaga’s historic centre.
For anyone who binged the show, this is a genuinely driveable itinerary — most locations cluster within an hour or so of Bristol, several are open to the public, and you can round it off with a steam train ride or a polo match. It’s also a fresh angle on the Cotswolds beyond the usual honey-stone villages: film-location tourism lets you see private estates, working studios and Victorian railway heritage that standard guidebooks skip.
