--- title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 5: What Is the Moonella Group description: The Moonella Group was a real thing canonical: https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-02T12:00:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:53:22.082Z article:section: History og:title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 5: What Is the Moonella Group og:description: The Moonella Group was a real thing og:url: https://time.com/3683221/downton-abbey-moonella-group/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6862372bc627c5e/69877bfa524fc01116dec22e/da52936251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Downton Abbey og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Downton Abbey Season 5 Episode 5: What Is the Moonella Group twitter:description: The Moonella Group was a real thing twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte6862372bc627c5e/69877bfa524fc01116dec22e/da52936251.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the Nudist Colony That Got a _Downton_ Shout-Out > Sponsored content. 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Its journalism is reported and edited by a professional newsroom led by Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs, with named correspondents on politics, climate, health, technology and culture. It reaches 1 million US print subscribers and 1.15 million globally, plus more than 1.1 million newsletter readers. #### How do I subscribe to TIME magazine? Subscriptions are at time.com/subscribe-agent. Choose digital only at $20 a year, or print and digital from $29 a year or $49 for two years. TIME also publishes seven free email newsletters at time.com/newsletters, which do not require a subscription. #### Can I cancel a TIME subscription? Yes. TIME states that subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. #### Does TIME have free newsletters? Yes. TIME publishes seven free email newsletters reaching more than 1.1 million readers, covering daily news, Washington politics, health, AI, climate and energy, culture, and the newsroom itself. They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription.  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 2, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Feb 2, 2015 12:00 PM UTC 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) 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) 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), 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/) ```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. 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