Beningbrough Hall in North Yorkshire, is a striking early-18th-century country house with a surprisingly rich history behind its elegant red-brick exterior.
In this video I take a look around the hall, its rather sparsely furnished interiors, the impressive staircase and the gardens, while tracing the story of the families who shaped Beningbrough over the centuries.
We meet John and Mary Bourchier, who created the present hall, look back at Sir John Bourchier’s involvement in the execution of Charles I, and follow the estate through the Earle and Dawnay families. The story then moves into the 20th century with Lady Chesterfield, her racing interests, the St Leger Border and the stud farm she established at Beningbrough.
There is also a wartime chapter, when the hall was used by RAF and RCAF personnel linked with nearby airfields, before the property eventually passed into the care of the National Trust.
The gardens form a major part of the visit too, including the historic walled garden and the more recent work of award-winning garden designer Andy Sturgeon.
Most of this video was filmed from ground level, with a few longer-range drone shots and gentle parallax views to show Beningbrough in its wider setting.
Some historical scenes in the video are AI-assisted artistic reconstructions created to help illustrate people and moments from the hall’s past where no suitable footage survives.
Excellent video Col. It’s reminded me that I need to make a return visit with my Air 3s soon. I visited without drone in May at which time the first floor was inaccessible due to works. I particularly liked the AI elements. How did you obtain them? They certainly enhanced this video!
As you’ve been before, you know the layout then. There were a few NT guys with buggies going around, so be choosy when you fly, if you get what I mean. Use the public paths if your not sure, they are on the OS maps etc. I was on the limit of VLOS TBH and had a spotter.
I credit the AI used in my videos at the bottom of the end screen, so just pause and get the URLs from there (sneaky way to get another view ).
I interact with ChatGTP to create a realistic and historically accurate scene (I provide the photos and portraits etc from historical data, and images, portraits of the characters and can take a few goes and refining) and then get it to create a prompt that gives me what I want so that I can use Photo to video. It can take a few goes though and the free version I use, only gives you low res’ 5 second clips (maximum 3 every 24 hrs), so I have to take a the last frame of the 1st vid, as a start for the 2nd part, to get more than 8 seconds; which with a score of 75 to 80 bpm is what you’ll need and then use Davinci Resolve to upscale as best I can. Some you can slow down, but most you can’t.
Its a faff, but cost effective, I guess and as I’m retired I have a lot of time to play with, although my missus tries her best to fill it with jobs, jobs, jobs!!!
Thanks for the explanation Col re AI. Despite being retired myself, I don’t think I will bother giving it a go myself. I just wondered how you did it !!
Re TOAL and I have considered the river bank as a likely location. I have, er, very good eyesight !
I was on the limit of VLOS TBH and had a spotter.
