IF YOU think you recognise the 'Balmoral' scenes in the smash hit Netflix series The Crown, which drops on Sunday, you'd be right. Because it was the New Forest's Rhinefield House Hotel which stood in for the Queen's Scottish home.

Helena Bonham-Carter, who plays Princess Margaret, and Olivia Colman, who plays the Queen, were among the stars who stayed at Rhinefield House as up to 90 crew members filmed there for two-and-a-half days.

The shoot marks a new high-point for Film:New Forest, the council-backed organisation which facilitates filming of movies and TV programmes in the new Forest area.

The Hotel’s general management team confirmed that 19 cast members stayed at the hotel and the team shot scenes in the hotel interior and around its outdoor pool for an episode.

A spokesman for the hotel said Rhinefield was contacted out of the blue in early 2018 by a member of The Crown’s production team, who had spotted the outdoor pool on its website. Four meetings later with three location managers and the filming was set up.

Furniture was changed around the hotel to make it look like the 1970s.

"It was a very lucrative piece of business and very beneficial for the hotel," said the spokesman. "It’s an amazing venue and no surprise people are inspired to use it for their productions.”

The news of the filming was welcomed by Matt Callaghan New Forest District Council’s Economic Development Manager who said “This is not the first time that one of our New Forest locations has been used to double up as another location. We have previously seen Beaulieu River as Miami and Lymington Quay as the Shambles in York. This underlines the versatility of the New Forest as a filming location and the wide range of productions we can attract.

The Film:New Forest Office worked closely with Creative England and our colleagues at Forestry England to ensure that the necessary permissions were in place.

The Crown is an example of the significant financial investment which filming can bring to the district. “We are now into the fourth year of our Film: New Forest project which has delivered more than £3m of spend on local goods and services.” This production alone generated £54k.