English: Byfleet Manor House

English: Byfleet Manor House. The current house was built in 1886 but a manor has been on the site since the 13th century. Once a residence of Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, and a favourite haunt of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, Byfleet Manor is now a private residence often used for location filming. It featured in ITV's Downtown Abbey as the home of Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham, played by Dame Maggie Smith. In February 2013 the Surrey Advertiser reported how a telecoms engineer had lifted the floorboards and come across a previously undocumented seven-foot square hidden room beneath him. It had no doors and a bricked up window. The room's purpose remains unknown.