10 Lancashire Love Stories

As Valentine’s Day approaches, Mairead Mahon goes through the files to find some of the county’s enduring love stories.

- Mairead Mahon

‘BIRDS DO IT, bees do it, even educated fleas do it’, according to Cole Porter and if you’re looking to ignite, or even rekindle, a little romance this St Valentine’s Day, then Lancashire Life has plenty of inspiring stories. And not a flea, educated or otherwise, in sight – we hope.

It’s surely no a coincidence that the red rose is a Lancashire symbol. But be warned, the course of true love doesn’t always run smoothly in this part of the world, a fact that didn’t escape the French author Honoré de Balzac. One of his characters described Lancashire as the place ‘where women die of love’.

One of the greatest modern historians, Lancashire lad A.J.P. Taylor, flatly contradicted that when he declared that Lancashire ladies swooning on every corner was as unlikely as ‘they are as brisk and business-like in love as they are in everything else.’ We wonder what he meant!

Before you rush out and buy your loved one that bouquet, sit back and share with us some love affairs from Lancashire. You might decide to take the wrapper off that box of chocolates and instead eat them yourself! Here are some of our favourites.

1. More than 60,000 people from all over the world pay a visit to Carnforth Station each year and there is a definite spike in the numbers at this time of the year. That’s because Brief Encounter, one of the great British romantic movies was filmed here.