A large part of Church Street in Whitby was dressed to give it the appearance of a 18/19th century fishing town. Gwyneth Paltrow insisted that the whole place was screened off so that she was not visible to the small crowd of on-lookers. Jeremy Northam, however, took time to go and talk about the film to the bystanders. Miss Paltrow also turned down an offer from the local dignitaries to meet the mayor and be shown around the town. The Whitby Gazette carried a massive banner headline declaring "PALTROW SNUBS WHITBY".
The character names "Maud Bailey" and "Christabel LaMotte" refer to a special form of castle, the Motte-and-Bailey, widespread in the 11th/12th century.
The Thomason Foss location was the actual waterfall mentioned in Byatts novel and a very inaccessible site but one they were determined to use,
Aaron Eckhart enters the movie riding on the rear platform of a bus. The vehicle in question is RM 3, the third example ever built, and one of the prototypes, of London's most iconic red bus, the Routemaster.