A RAILWAY ROMANCE: BRIEF ENCOUNTER/CARNFORTH

 

Brief Encounter, a 1945 film directed by David Lean about two married strangers who meet by chance on a railway station, is highly evocative of a time when everyone travelling by train seemed to be dressed up to the nines and speak with cut-glass accents.  Just as evocative is the location of much of the film’s action, a train station full of period touches such as those which can be found on heritage railways up and down the land.

The opening scene takes place on a station platform with a steam train rushing past and a vintage round clock with Roman numerals hanging from the platform roof.  We are then shown a sign with a hand pointing to the ‘Refreshment Room’.  This was before the days of Costa and Starbucks, when everyone drank cups of tea served from giant tea urns.  Here we get our first glimpse of the star-crossed lovers of the ‘brief encounter’ in question, Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) and Dr Alec Harvey (Trevor Howard).  Later, the film backtracks to the moment the pair first met, and during this scene a sign comes into view saying ‘Milford Junction’.  This is the name of the station in the film, but in real life it is Carnforth station. 

When watching the film for the first time recently, I heard Laura saying she had popped into Boots for a book, and then there is a scene with her getting her book and moving to another section of the premises where there are toothbrushes and so forth.  I thought I was hearing things, but on doing some research I discovered that up to 1966 Boots the Chemist did indeed have a library service.  The street scenes in the film were shot a long way from Carnforth, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire.  According to an online discussion about the location, the Boots of the film is now a Chinese restaurant.  A later scene involving a boating lake was filmed in Regent’s Park.  Another scene in the film whisks us off to the Lake District, where the little bridge seen in the film was filmed at Middle Fell Bridge. Langdale Beck. 

2018 at Carnforth station - the heritage centre. Photo by Geof Sheppard, via Wikimedia Commons.

 

Film enthusiasts will be pleased to know that Carnforth Station has preserved the famous tea room as the Brief Encounter Refreshment Room, looked after by the Carnforth Station Heritage Centre.

Map of Carnforth.

MURDER IN MORECAMBE: THE BAY

Being set in a seaside location and starting with the disappearance of two teenagers, inevitably there will be comparisons between The Bay and Broadchurch.  Personally, I think The Bay is the better of the two.  It starts on a very interesting premise, every policewoman’s nightmare.  I won’t say any more in case anyone has not got around to viewing it yet. 


The seaside location in question is Morecambe of Morecambe Bay, with its famously treacherous sands, and there are plenty of shots of the beach.  Much of the filming took place around the Stone Jetty.  Apparently Morecambe was chosen because as well as being a beautiful part of the British coast, it is also a town with an edge to it.  At the beginning, there is an aerial shot of the town with the magnificent art-deco Midland Hotel taking centre stage. The hotel was renovated and reopened in 2008, but in its heyday was frequented by the likes of Coco Chanel and Noel Coward. 

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Beach at Morecambe (7907). Photo by Nilfanion, via Wikimedia Commons.

Episode 1 has the lead policewoman in the drama heading to town on a night out, culminating in a karaoke session.  This takes place in the Royal Bar at the Royal Hotel, which was actually used in the scene.  Away from Morecambe, there is a scene involving an outdoor lido.  This was filmed at nearby Grange Lido at Grange-Over-Sands, on the north shore of Morecambe Bay.

Map of the area.

VALENTINE SPECIAL: LOVE ON PAGE AND SCREEN

With Valentine’s Day upon us, I have come over all soppy and decided to share some British locations associated with some of the many romantic moments featured in our nation’s works of film, TV and literature.  So get out the heart-shaped chocolates and enjoy.

Gunwalloe, Cornwall: Dwight marries Caroline in Poldark

I have already described some of the Poldark locations in an earlier post, including the location of Nampara, where Ross and Demelza build their life together.  I do not tear up easily, but one scene in series 3 even got me going, when Caroline Penvenen and Dr. Dwight Ennis, after a seemingly doomed relationship, finally tied the knot.  The church where the wedding was filmed was the charming and very Cornish Church of St Winwaloe, nestled among the dunes in Gunwalloe near the Lizard Peninsula.  Being of a ‘three hall’ design, the present day church is thought to date from the 15^th century, although the original chancel and nave were probably 13^th century, and there is a Norman font.  

St Winwaloe Church and Church Cove - geograph.org.uk - 981092. Photo by Rod Allday, via Wikimedia Commons.

Valency Valley, Cornwall: Thomas Hardy meets his first wife

Staying in Cornwall, but this time near the north coast, the Valency Valley is a lush hideaway just inland from the picturesque harbour village of Boscastle.  Set in an isolated position on the northern slopes of the valley is the Church of St Juliot.  In 1870 Thomas Hardy, who at the time was an aspiring architect, arrived at the church to perform work on its restoration following the death of the person originally hired to do the job.  While there he met and fell in love with his first wife Emma, the rector’s sister-in-law and their courtship inspired one of his works, the novel ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’. 

Mapperton House, Dorset: Bathsheba and her triangle of suitors

Continuing the Hardy theme, Bathsheba Everdene in Hardy’s Far From The Madding Crowd must surely be one of English literature’s most fascinating and complex characters, a woman ahead of her time for her fierce independence.  When she inherits a farmhouse and takes up residence there she find herself pursued by a trio of suitors: Gabriel Oak, a shepherd from her past who asks her to marry him but is rejected – although he gets his girl in the end; Sergeant Francis Troy, who succeeds in wooing her but turns out to be really bad news; and the lonely farmer William Boldwood, who Bathsheba foolishly leads on with a Valentine saying “Marry me” but who eventually succeeds in gaining her hand in marriage only for it to end in tragedy through a fatal spat with Troy.  The 2015 film version of the story, starring Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba, captures all this wooing and wedding perfectly.  Bathsheba’s farmhouse in the film is portrayed by Mapperton House near Beaminster in the Hardy county of Dorset, a Jacobean manor house and home to the Earl and Countess of Sandwich.  The house is open to visitors on guided tours only.

Mapperton House - geograph.org.uk - 517671. Photo by Chris Downer, via Wikimedia Commons.

Apple Tree Yard, London

The scene of the al fresco knee trembler involving Yvonne Carmichael and her mysterious lover in the book and TV series of the same name actually exists as Apple Tree Yard in real life.  It is an insignificant alleyway behind Jermyn Street in Mayfair.  However, the makers of the TV production were unable to use the yard for the series because of building work going on there for a major redevelopment, so a similar alleyway in the City had to be used instead. 

Romantic locations galore in Four Weddings and a Funeral

The 1994 romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andi McDowell, takes us on a tour of romantic locations in south-east England for the wedding scenes.  Wedding No. 1 takes place in St Michael’s Church, Betchworth near Reigate, with the reception filmed at a property named Goldingtons in Sarratt, Hertfordshire, which went up for sale in 2015 for a cool £4.5m.  No. 2 is conducted at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, with Luton Hoo Estate near Luton being used for the reception.  The third wedding service was supposed to take place in Perthshire in the film, but was actually filmed at Albury Park, Guildford, Surrey, with the reception at Rotherfield Park near Alton, Hampshire.  The final wedding is scheduled to take place at St Bartholomew-the-Great in Clerkenwell, but turns into a non-wedding when Charles has second thoughts.

A wealth of stately homes: Pride and Prejudice

The 1995 version of Pride and Prejudice has Mr Darcy sneering at everyone in a lavish ballroom, meant to be the Netherfield Ballroom.  His dance with Lizzie on this occasion  marks the beginning of their romance.  Netherfield Park, where the scene takes place, is the home of Mr Bingley, a wealthy gentleman from the city, and the exterior of the property is represented by Edgecote House in Northamptonshire, while the ballroom scene was shot in the ballroom of Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire.  Later on in the series Darcy has an awkward encounter with Lizzie dressed in wet underclothes following a swim in a lake on a hot day.  This scene, which was voted one of the best on British TV, was shot at Lyme Park in Cheshire.

Teversal Manor, Nottinghamshire: Lady Chatterley's Lover

The racy novel by D H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, is centred on the tragic couple Lady Constance Chatterley and her paralysed husband Clifford.  At night Constance creeps from their  home, Wragby Hall, to spend time with her lover Oliver Mellors the gamekeeper.  The house believed to have provided the inspiration for Wragby Hall was Teversal Manor, near Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, which was put up for sale in 2013 for £1m.

Stokesay Court, Shropshire: Atonement

The novel Atonement by Ian McEwen explores the ill-fated romance between Cecilia Tallis and Robbie Turner, the son of the family’s cleaning lady.  In 2007 the novel was made into a film, and the Tallis family home which was the scene of the beginning of the couple’s romance was represented by Stokesay Court in Onibury, Shropshire, built by Victorian merchant John Derby Allcroft.  Not to be confused with the much older Stokesay Castle, an English Heritage site to the north, just south of Craven Arms.

Blackpool: a very Coronation Street romance

The fictional Coronation Street couple Roy and Hayley Cropper were once described as the greatest soap couple of all time.  They were also possibly the most unusual, given that Hayley started out as a bloke and was the first transgender character in a British soap opera.  Unfortunately, the romance between the two comes to a sad end when Hayley is diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Following the diagnosis the couple head to Blackpool to try and grab some last happiness together, for example dancing in the Tower Ballroom. Following Hayley’s death, Roy scatters her ashes in the sea at Blackpool.

Carnforth Station: Brief Encounter.

One of the most memorable images from 1940s British cinema is that of Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson gazing meaningfully into each other's eyes in a station cafe in Brief Encounter.   Those who want to relive that romantic moment should head for Carnforth, because it was the cafe at Carnforth Station, now known as the Brief Encounter Refreshment Room, which was used in the film with the station acting as Milford Junction.  It is a fitting name, because at that time Carnforth was a major junction in the railway system of the north-west, and during the war thousands of servicemen passed through on the way to their overseas destinations.  However, Carnforth was a victim of the Beeching rail cuts in the 1960s, and the station was turned into a mere branch line station with a lot of the buildings from its heyday falling derelict.  Recent restoration work has resulted in the opening of the Carnforth Station Heritage Centre, incorporating that famous cafe.

Carnforth Station waiting room. Photo by Deben Dave, via Wikimedia Commons.

High Sunderland Hall, Yorkshire: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, the property at the heart of Emily Bronte’s novel of the same name, is the scene of a classic story of love and revenge, charting the doomed love affair between Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of the property’s owner, and the dark and brooding Heathcliff, an orphan boy brought by Earnshaw to live with the family following a trip to Liverpool.  The inspiration for the exterior of Wuthering Heights is thought to be High Sunderland Hall near Halifax, while the location of the property is assumed to be Top Withens, the site of a ruined farmhouse near the Bronte family’s home village, Haworth.

Tretower Court, Powys: The Libertine

The Libertine, starring Johnny Depp, is a historical romp centred on a drunken, sex-mad poet called John Wilmot, or the Earl of Rochester, a friend of King Charles II.  Wilmot falls in love with an actress he has decided to make into a star.  Much of the film was made in the Isle of Man for tax purposes, but several key scenes were filmed at the 14^th century Tretower Court, a medieval courtyard house and adjoining castle near Crickhowell, Powys.   Apparently Depp joined some of the locals for a drink at the Bear Hotel, where some of the crew members were staying.

Cumbernauld: Gregory's Girl.

Gregory’s Girl, released in 1981, is a romantic comedy with a Scottish accent which launched the film acting career of John Gordon Sinclair, who was just 19 at the time of filming.  Much of the action takes place in and around the New Town of Cumbernauld in North Lanarkshire.  The site was designated for a New Town in 1955, and the town has since grown to be the ninth most populated locality in Scotland.  Among the industries which have grown up around this population are the studios for the TV series Outlander, which makes much use of the surrounding area.

SUMMER SPECIAL: BEACHES ON THE BIG AND SMALL SCREEN

Summer’s here and it’s time to head for the beach, but in between leaping into the waves and sunning yourself, why not stop to consider all the wonderful film and TV scenes produced over the years featuring the nation’s stunning beaches.  Here is a baker’s dozen of British beaches which have featured on the big and small screen.

Holywell Beach, Cornwall

In the third series of Poldark Geoffrey Charles, stepson of George Warleggan, is seen visiting a beautiful beach and declaring it the best beach in Cornwall.  In another episode the same beach forms the backdrop for the romantic reunion of Geoffrey Charles’ governess Morwenna and Demelza’s brother Drake.  The beach in question is the one at Holywell Bay, easily recognisable from the two pointy islets just offshore known as Gull Rocks.  This is not the first time the beach has been seen on screen: it appears on the big screen in Summer In February, the 2013 film about an Edwardian artists’ colony in Cornwall, in which Gilbert Evans and Alfred Munnings are seen riding together on horseback and discussing the love interest, the fragrant Florence Carter-Wood.  The bay’s name derives from St Cubert’s Holy Well, which is to be found in Holywell Cave, accessible at low tide.  The cave features in one of the above-mentioned Poldark episodes, when Drake leads Geoffrey Charles and Morwenna to it.

On a much grimmer note, in 2002 the beach was transformed into a North Korean battlefield for the opening scenes of the  James Bond film Die Another Day, although apart from a brief glimpse of Gull Rocks you would never recognise it.  The lifeguard hut was turned into a pill box and barbed wire was arranged all over in order to achieve the desired effect.

Dunes at Holywell Bay (6124). Photo by Nilfanion, via Wikimedia Commons

West Bay, Dorset

The distinctive orange-hued cliffs backing the beach at West Bay will be forever remembered by Broadchurch fans as the place where the Latimers’ son Danny was found dead on the beach, a tragic event which formed the central focus of the first series and continued to weave its way through the two subsequent series.  The beach is repeatedly seen thereafter, often with dramatic waves crashing onto the shore.  The rocks forming the cliffs date from the Early Jurassic age and consist of Bridport Sand Formation and Inferior Oolite.  There are also frequent glimpses of the harbour adjacent to the beach in the series.

Brighton, East Sussex

Brighton Beach has featured in many productions over the years.  Among the most memorable scenes is the one in Quadrophenia in which the central character Jimmy is sitting on the shingle after an eventful night out gazing pensively out to sea, accompanied by the strains of  The Who’s ‘Love, Reign O’er Me’.  Then there is the scene from Mona Lisa, in which Bob Hoskins and Cathy Tyson are seen larking about in comedy sunglasses on the Palace Pier.  The beach and seafront also appeared in The Boat That Rocked about a 1960s pirate radio station, and of course both the 1947 and 2010 version of  Brighton Rock, based on the Graham Greene novel of the same name, featured the seafront, in particular the pier.  This is just a small selection of appearances by the film makers’ favourite resort.

20070813 brighton10. Photo by Jean Housen, via Wikimedia Commons.

Camber  Sands, East Sussex

Camber Sands near Rye is a riot of dunes, a rarity in the south-east.  The makers of the Carry On film Follow That Camel evidently thought the beach resembled the Sahara Desert, only without the attendant heat and lack of infrastructure.  The sands were also seen in a beach scene in The Theory of Everything, about the life of Stephen Hawking.  But most of the appearances by the sands have been in war films.  The 1958 version of Dunkirk used the beach as the backdrop for a recreation of Operation Dynamo, and in the 1962 film The Longest Day it was used to depict the Normandy beaches, a role repeated in the more recent film The Monuments Men, starring George Clooney and Matt Damon, about an attempt to save art treasures from the Nazis. 

Holkham Beach, Norfolk

This sweeping mass of sand manages to upstage Gwyneth Paltrow in the final scene in Shakespeare in Love.  The actress is seen striding along the beach, meant to be Shakespeare’s Illyria, in a flowing gown while Joseph Fiennes as Shakespeare sings her praises in a voiceover.  More recently, the beach became “Area X” in a sci-fi film called Annihilation starring Natalie Portman.  Visitors to the beach will no doubt want to look in on the nearby Palladian masterpiece Holkham Hall, which has also been used a fair bit in filming.

Redcar, North Yorkshire

Like Camber Sands, Redcar’s beach has been used to depict the beach at Dunkirk, this time in the film version of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.  The harrowing wartime scenes filmed at Redcar included local people who were brought in as extras to play the soldiers.  One of the excited inhabitants of the town commented that they wished they could put a price on what the film was worth to the town, quite justifiably, since visitor numbers jumped by some 70% during the filming.

Bamburgh, Northumberland

As well as being a stunning beach, Bamburgh has the added attraction of being overlooked by one of the country’s most impressive castles.  This has inevitably made it irresistible to film makers.  The castle and beach were used for the filming of the 1971 version of Macbeth, directed by Roman Polanski, and during the production of the 2015 version the cast and 200 extras were seen at the castle.  The castle also made an appearance in the 1998 film Elizabeth.  On the small screen, the castle served to depict Belleme Castle in Robin of Sherwood.  Another appearance on the small screen was in an episode of Most Haunted, a ghost hunting series best known for Yvette Fielding screaming her head off  and Derek Acorah speaking in tongues.  The ghosts in the castle reportedly include a stunningly beautiful “pink lady”.

Bamburgh MMB 39 Bamburgh Castle. Photo by mattbuck, via Wikimedia Commons.

St Andrews, Fife

The opening scene of the film Chariots of Fire, which tells the story of two athletes who, after years of training, are accepted to compete in the 1924 Paris Olympics, features a race along a beautiful sandy beach with the athletes dressed in their white period racing gear, their feet splashing in the shallows, with the stirring theme tune by Vangelis ringing out.   Towards the end of the scene the skyline of the university and cathedral city of St Andrews comes into the camera shot, revealing that the scene of the race is the city’s West Sands beach, backed by St Andrews Links, this being “the home of golf”.  The beach where the athletes trained was meant to be at Broadstairs, but the film makers chose St Andrews for the running scenes.

Camusdarach Beach, Arisaig, Highland

In the heartwarming film Local Hero, which tells the story of a rich American oil company’s efforts to buy a small Scottish coastal village for oil prospecting purposes, much of the action takes place on the east coast, in the village of Pennan.  However, one of the most beautiful locations used in the film was actually on the other side of Scotland at Camusdarach Beach, between Morar and Arisaig.  The beach is the setting of the amusing scene in which the local populace gather in the little church overlooking the beach to hold a meeting about the oil company's bid to exploit the area, while the oil men stand on the beach, oblivious to the line of people filing into the church.

Looking North up Camusdarach Beach - geograph.org.uk - 68305. Photo by David Crocker, via Wikimedia Commons.

Blackpool, Lancashire

Blackpool has made repeated appearances in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.  From the early days in 1961, when Ena, Minnie and Martha took a trip up the Blackpool Tower, to 1985 when Bet Lynch declared that "Everybody's letting their hair down. You can cut smell of shrimps and best bitter with a knife."  Fast forward to 1989 when one of Coronation Street's worst villains, Alan Bradley, met his end at the hands of a Blackpool tram while stalking Rita Fairclough, who had moved to the town to escape from him.  Then there was the recent heart-rending scene involving Roy and Hayley Cropper who went to Blackpool to try to blot out Hayley's terminal cancer.  On the big screen, the resort is the focal point of the British comedy film Bhaji On The Beach about a group of women from the Indian subcontinent enjoying a day trip to see the famous Blackpool Illuminations. 

Freshwater West, Pembrokeshire

The year 2009 was a big one for filming on the spectacular beach at Freshwater West.  In May of that year the beach was taken over by the Harry Potter team, when filming took place for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  The most striking prop was Dobby's Shell Cottage, which is seen in the film with the dunes as a backdrop.  Then, the following month the production crew of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood arrived and put on a dazzling display for any casual onlookers as they filmed the scene depicting a battle against French invaders with Robin Hood (Russell Crowe) leading his men into the fray.  The scene was so massive that it involved 800 actors and 130 horses as well as dozens of the boats that were built for the filming.   

Freshwater West - geograph.org.uk - 239022. Photo by Jeremy Owen, via Wikimedia Commons.

Southerndown, Vale of Glamorgan

Many Doctor Who fans will have been touched by the relationship between the David Tennant version of the Doctor and his sidekick Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).  So the tearjerking scene in which the Doctor is about to declare his feelings for Rose when he suddenly dematerialises must have had them reaching for the tissues.  The scene of all this heartache was the beach at Southerndown in South Wales, meant to be Bad Wolf Bay in Norway in the series.  The production team evidently thought highly of the beach in question as a filming location: it was used in several other episodes including Journey's End, which saw Rose being joined by her successor Donna (Catherine Tate). 

Portstewart Strand, County Londonderry

One of the most magnificent beaches in Northern Ireland, and just one of a host of scenic coastal locations seen in Game of Thrones, which has just begun its seventh series, Portstewart Strand was where Jaime Lannister and Bronn were seen duelling with the Dornish guards in series 5.  The filming took place in August 2014, which was unfortunate, this being one of Northern Ireland’s most popular summer holiday spots, because the beach was completely closed for the filming.  The locals didn’t mind, though, considering the closure a small price to pay for the exposure given to Portstewart by its role in Game of Thrones.

A westerly view along The Strand, Portstewart - geograph.org.uk - 1312074. Photo by Des Colhoun, via Wikimedia Commons.

DICKENS UP NORTH: PRESTON, LANCASHIRE

Among all the works by Charles Dickens, Hard Times seems a bit out on a limb.  The main reason for this is geographical, being set “up north” rather than the author’s usual stamping ground, which was mainly in the south-east, sometimes extending out west to Bath, or up the east coast to Great Yarmouth.  The story is set in the fictional Lancashire industrial centre known as Coketown.  Dickens had never ventured this far north prior to writing the novel, so to get himself into the mood he set off for Preston in 1854, where he reportedly became thoroughly bored and depressed, perhaps as much as anything because there was a strike on at the time – oh, and the fact that it was January probably didn’t help.  The industrial unrest witnessed by Dickens provided the main inspiration for the backdrop to the story, and for the characters, including the obnoxious industrialist Josiah Bounderby and one of his employees, the tragic Stephen Blackpool, unable to leave his alcoholic wife for his co-worker sweetheart, wrongly accused of a bank robbery and forced to flee the mill and Coketown before coming to an untimely end after falling into a hole in the ground. 

It has been commented that, unusually for Dickens, the characters in Hard Times lack vibrancy, not surprisingly since he did not linger long enough in Preston to get to know the local people.  However, where he does shine is in his descriptions of the local industrial landscape.  Coketown is described as “that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in”.  The red brick architecture is dismissed with the comment that it is “of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it”.  Not surprisingly, the chimneys attract particular disgust: “the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes”.  However, he did concede that the factories, when lit up, looked like “fairy palaces”.  Even on a sunny summer’s day and seen from a distance “Coketown lay shrouded in a haze of its own, which appeared impervious to the sun’s rays.   You only knew the town was there because you knew there could have been no such blotch upon the prospect without a town.” 

Miller Arcade Preston. Photo by Francis C. Franklin, via Wikimedia Commons

Preston lies on the banks of the River Ribble, and its origins go back to Roman times.  Highlights of the city’s pre-industrial age include the Battle of Preston in 1648, during the English Civil War, and another Battle of Preston during the Jacobite Rebellion, when the Jacobite army was defeated there.  It was in the 19^th century, however, that the former market town became a ‘poster child’ for the transformations brought about by the Industrial Revolution, most notably courtesy of the cotton industry and its mills such as the one owned by Bounderby.  The appalling conditions in the mills were what led to the strike of 1842 which led to the reading of the Riot Act and the involvement of armed troops, who killed several strikers.  Sadly, like so many places in the north, the 20^th century saw a notable decline in the city’s industrial activity.  The free to enter Harris Museum and Art Gallery has a section devoted to the city’s history alongside its art displays.  The town's shopping centres include the Victorian era Miller Arcade, pictured above, which was modelled on the Burlington Arcade in London.

The Harris Museum Preston.  Photo by Francis C. Franklin, via Wikimedia Commons

Map of the area.