--- description: The Moonella Group was a real thing title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 5: What Is the Moonella Group image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6862372bc627c5e/69877bfa524fc01116dec22e/da52936251.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # This Is the Nudist Colony That Got a _Downton_ Shout-Out  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 2, 2015 12:00 PM CUT  Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary and Hugh Bonneville as Lord Grantham Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary and Hugh Bonneville as Lord GranthamNick Briggs—Carnival Film & Television Ltd/PBS  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 2, 2015 12:00 PM CUT It’s such a brief aside that _Downton Abbey_ viewers might even not notice it — except that the subject matter is so out of character for the show. Yes, in the episode that aired Feb. 1 in the U.S., a nudist colony is the subject of conversation. The Essex-based colony, known as the Moonella Group was — as we’ve come to expect from _Downton_ — an actual thing. As _The Telegraph_ [explained](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3652246/Stark-naked-ambition.html "undefined") in a 2006 look at the history of naked Britons, the Moonella Group was the first club to bring nudism (also known as naturism) over to the U.K. from the Continent, which it did in the years following World War I. The modern British Naturism organization [elaborates](http://www.bn.org.uk/articles.php/%5F/information/about-naturism/history-of-naturism/a-history-of-naturism-r27 "undefined") in its own history of the movement, Moonella was the code-name of the club member who owned the property where the camp was established. He or she invited some elite members of the New Gymnosophy Society to use the groups for their naturist needs, as long as they followed certain rules of decorum. According to British Naturism, the original Moonella Group site only lasted a year or so. But, [as TIME reported in July of 1929](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,732583,00.html "undefined"), nudism wasn’t going away any time soon — even if it faded from the public eye for a while: --- > “” --- **_Read a 2003 story about modern nudists, here in the TIME Vault:_** [Nude Family Values](http://time.com/vault/issue/2003-06-30/spread/54/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/"},"headline":"This Is the Nudist Colony That Got a Downton Shout-Out","datePublished":"2015-02-02T12:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:53:22.082Z","description":"The Moonella Group was a real thing","url":"https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/","keywords":["Television","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6862372bc627c5e/69877bfa524fc01116dec22e/da52936251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6862372bc627c5e/69877bfa524fc01116dec22e/da52936251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Downton Abbey","caption":"Downton Abbey Season 5 on MASTERPIECE on PBSPart FiveSunday, February 1, 2015 at 9pm ETRose makes a handsome new acquaintance. Something is wrong with Thomas. Edith’s link toMarigold draws attention. Bricker and Robert lose control.Shown from left to rig","creditText":"Nick Briggs—Carnival Film & Television Ltd/PBS","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/","name":"This Is the Nudist Colony That Got a Downton Shout-Out"}}]}] ```