From a string of emails on https://www.orwelltoday.com/afwillingdonhotel.shtml
Greetings Vivian,
Actually, I'm the 'someone' who visited Orwell's ANIMAL FARM and took the photos and wrote the article you read on ORWELL TODAY. That real-life farm is in the village of WALLINGTON in Hertfordshire.
I never realized, until I went to Wallington -- to see the little house where Orwell used to live -- that the farm just up the hill was probably the main source of inspiration for the farm he describes in ANIMAL FARM. The first major clue was the MANOR FARM name on the sign which I'm pointing to above (and notice the BIG BARN too). "Manor Farm", as readers will recall, was the name of Mr Jones's farm before the "revolution" after which it was re-named "Animal Farm":
I show other similarities to the REAL Manor Farm in Wallington with the fictitious ANIMAL FARM which was in Willingdon. Notice how similar the names are, ie WALLINGTON is like WILLINGDON.
In ANIMAL FARM (as in all his books) Orwell uses REAL places and REAL people and even REAL names (just slightly changed) and anyone who knew him (or reads biographies about him) can spot the similarities.
The places are never EXACTLY the same but are a compilation of a couple or a few places. For that reason the "Chalk Farm" in Willingdon that you sent the link to probably IS in part the source for ANIMAL FARM in ANIMAL FARM (especially the exact duplication of the name WILLINGDON). And, as seen in the images you sent, the sketch of the farmhouse in your film is very similar to the real one at Chalk Farm (another godcident because no doubt your animator was never there back in 1954).
And, as that Chalk Farm article points out, Orwell went to school at St Cyprian's in Eastbourne which is walking distance to WILLINGDON East Sussex (and Orwell as a school boy used to do lots of nature-walking in the area).
And, of course, the Red Lion Pub from ANIMAL FARM still exists there in WILLINGDON as does MANOR FARM in WALLINGTON.
So the bottom line is that if people want to visit the REAL farm Orwell had in mind for ANIMAL FARM they could go to Manor Farm in Wallington and Chalk Farm in Willingdon.
All the best,
Jackie Jura
