Photographs from ‘Emmerdale’ as soap celebrates 50th anniversary
A SELECTION of picturesque photographs of Emmerdale village has been released in celebration of the soap’s 50th anniversary.
The ITV programme was first broadcast on October 16, 1972, and was originally filmed in the real-life village of Arncliffe in the Yorkshire Dales before moving to Esholt in West Yorkshire.
After 22 years the production moved to the Harewood Estate, where a replica of Esholt was constructed, after the village became too busy to film, with congestion and disruption caused by visits from fans hoping to catch a glimpse of the soap’s characters and locations.
The move took place over Christmas – the only time the soap takes a break from filming – in 1996 and the set was first used in 1997. The purpose-built
village was constructed over the course of 20 weeks and has its own electricity and water supply, as well as phone lines, sanitation and a hi-tech security system, although it has no foundations or permanent structures.
The Emmerdale village covers more than 11 acres of land on the Yorkshire estate, with all its buildings classed as temporary structures and most built using timber structures covered in limestone cladding, designed to emulate 1600s housing designs built with Yorkshire limestone.
In order to create a realisticlooking village, the set’s designers used a number of methods to effectively age the buildings including spraying the houses with yoghurt and manure to encourage lichen to grow quickly on the walls and roofs. Real headstones were salvaged from an 18th century east London graveyard when it was redeveloped, and used in the Emmerdale graveyard which holds characters who have died in the show during its 50-year run.
To increase the authenticity of the houses, each of the properties in the village has their own chimney with small smoke machines. The village also includes 900 square miles of turf, which is maintained by a fulltime gardener.