Since "The Killings at Badger's Drift" first aired in 1997, Midsomer Murders has racked up more than 25 series without ever filming in a genuinely fictional place. Midsomer County is an invention, but the production has always leaned on real towns and villages to build it — mostly within a compact stretch of the Chilterns straddling Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, with occasional trips into Surrey.
The same handful of real towns reappear across dozens of episodes, standing in for different fictional Midsomer villages depending on the story — a single high street might play Badger's Drift one season and Midsomer Parva the next.
The heart of Midsomer County sits in Oxfordshire, where a cluster of market towns and river villages provide the show's most-used backdrops.
Wallingford is one of the two towns that together supply most of Causton's scenes, alongside Thame — though the fictional town is really a composite built from several real places. Wallingford's cobbled Market Square appears repeatedly, and the Grade II-listed Corn Exchange on the square has stood in as the Causton Playhouse across multiple episodes.
Look closely at the show's opening titles and you may spot Warborough's village green — the village has featured in seven separate locations across the series. Its historic thatched pub, the Six Bells, has appeared repeatedly throughout the show's run, including several times as "The Black Swan," the local pub in the recurring fictional village of Badger's Drift.
Regularly cited as one of the prettiest of the recurring Midsomer villages, Dorchester-on-Thames contributes its historic coaching inns and the Abbey Church of St Peter and St Paul, whose atmospheric interior has appeared in multiple episodes.
The real Henley Royal Regatta inspired the show's own Midsomer Regatta episode — filmed on Henley Bridge and the surrounding riverbanks — though naturally the fictional version's day out at the river ends rather less pleasantly than the real one.
This small Oxfordshire town has quietly done double duty as Causton's library, one of the many small, easy-to-miss ways the production reuses the same real towns to build out Midsomer's fictional geography.
Thame rivals Wallingford as one of the show's most heavily used locations, with more than 20 documented filming spots around town. Its own Town Hall has been dressed as Causton Town Hall so often that the local tourist office keeps a "Causton" sign on hand for visitors' photos, and the same building has also stood in as the Causton Arts Centre in other episodes.
Just across the county line, a second cluster of Chilterns villages supplies many of Midsomer's other recurring streets, pubs, and manor houses.
Amersham's historic High Street has been a Midsomer Murders location since the show's very first episode in 1997, and film crews have returned to it regularly ever since — its old town has stood in for more different fictional villages than almost anywhere else on this list.
Beaconsfield railway station, on the Chiltern Main Line, has repeatedly been dressed with temporary Causton signage to stand in as the fictional town's train station. Beaconsfield is also home to Bekonscot Model Village, memorably used in the 2009 episode "Small Mercies" for a murder scene staged like a miniature Gulliver among the tiny buildings.
The Red Lion in Little Missenden has played the village pub of the fictional Midsomer Magna (in the episode "Destroying Angel," among others) and has appeared under several other names across the series — one of the genuine Chilterns pubs the production returns to whenever a story needs a proper English local.
This tight cluster of Buckinghamshire villages, just a few miles from the Oxfordshire border, shows up again and again as favourite backdrops, alongside grand country houses like Chenies Manor House and the Mapledurham Estate whenever a story calls for a manor house murder.
Every location above is a genuine, publicly accessible town or village — no set visits or special access required, though a few private houses and interiors used for filming aren't open to the public.
Getting There
Self-Guided or Guided Tour
All locations are within an easy day trip of London, mostly under an hour by car or train.
Prefer to plan your own route?
The Midsomer Murders Location Guide
A published guidebook pinpointing the villages, pubs, and country houses used throughout the series.
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No. Midsomer County is fictional, but the show films almost entirely in real villages and towns across Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, with occasional scenes in Surrey.
Most filming takes place in the Chilterns area spanning Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire — towns and villages including Wallingford, Thame, Warborough, Dorchester-on-Thames, Henley-on-Thames, Watlington, Amersham, and Beaconsfield recur across many episodes.
No single town is used exclusively. Wallingford and Thame both provide the bulk of Causton's scenes — Wallingford for its Market Square and the Corn Exchange (as the Causton Playhouse), Thame for its Town Hall (as Causton Town Hall) — with other towns filling in specific buildings and scenes.
Yes. All of the villages are real, public places you can visit independently, and several companies also run guided coach or walking tours specifically covering Midsomer Murders locations.
Yes, Batsford Books publishes a dedicated Midsomer Murders location guide pinpointing the real villages and landmarks used throughout the series.
Across more than 25 series, Midsomer Murders has used dozens of villages, churches, pubs, and country houses — far too many to list in full, though the same handful of towns like Wallingford and Amersham reappear most often.
Fact-checked September 2026 against multiple independent sources. Spot an error? Let us know via the contact page.
