12 Fascinating Facts You Probably Don't Know About "Downton Abbey"

The major plot in season two involves the Crawleys opening up Downton to serve as a convalescent hospital for soldiers wounded during the Great War. In real life, Highclere Castle and its stewards, the Carnarvons, did the exact same thing. As shown in a BBC featurette, the Countess of Carnarvon, like the fictional Countess of Grantham, oversaw the transformation of the estate into a temporary hospital to support the war effort.