1998 Purpose-Built Set



The 1998 Purpose-Built Set is the set currently used by the Emmerdale crew to film exterior scenes for the main village (including Tall Trees Cottage, the Cricket Pavilion and the Ford. The set is built on the Harewood Estate and has been used as the primary filming location since January 1998. Prior to the building of this set, the exterior scenes were filmed in Esholt.

Planning and construction
In 1989, designer Mike Long had ideas for the purpose built set and began making plans. However, these plans were not submitted as it was felt the tourism problem in Esholt was not bad enough to disrupt filming and the risk of the filming locations being exposed was low. However, producer Mervyn Watson decided to introduce a third episode of Emmerdale in December 1995, meaning that a set needed to be built as the residents of Esholt were disrupted by only two episodes being filmed. Mike Long and Timothy J. Fee submitted these plans and in 1996, the costs were formalised and final plans were made. The set was created almost exactly like Esholt, however some of the locations were moved and some, such as the church and the Vicarage were not initially built due the costs. Construction began in June 1997 and the set was completed in December 1997. Filming took place in January 1998 and Episode 2325 was the first episode to be transmitted featuring the new set.

Other information

 * A tree was planted by the team to celebrate the use of the new set. However, the tree ended up dying and it was felled in Episode 3623/3624 as a part of the storm storyline.
 * During the construction of the purpose built set, part of Woodgrange Park Cemetery was cleared to make room for flats. The chairman on the borough council heard about the Emmerdale set and offered the team the headstones for free. The headstones can be seen in many scenes in the Cemetery.