Downham Hall is a Georgian manor house at the top of the village, the seat of the Assheton family, who have held the estate here since 1558. The hall itself is not open to the public, but the estate is visible from the road and the walking paths, and its influence is felt throughout the village. The Asshetons have banned television aerials, satellite dishes, and unsympathetic modifications from properties on the estate — which is why Downham looks the way it does, and why it keeps appearing in period dramas and films set in rural England.
The estate includes the surrounding farmland and much of the village fabric. Walking around the lanes below the hall gives a sense of how a village managed as a single property differs from one that has evolved organically — everything is maintained, nothing is out of place, and the overall effect is either beautifully preserved or slightly uncanny depending on your temperament.