KEEPING ROMANCE ON TRACK

Thousands of visitors pour into Carnforth every year to pay homage to most romantic film ever made

- Louise Bryning

Seventy-five years ago two film stars stepped onto a railway platform in Carnforth and the station’s romantic reputation was born.

This Valentine’s Day – and all year round – old romantics follow in the footsteps of Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard who filmed the classic love story Brief Encounter at Carnforth in 1945.

Many pose for photographs under the original station clock seen in the film and then wallow in more nostalgia at the station’s award-winning Heritage Centre, where the film is played on a loop 1500 times a year, before taking a rest in a re-creation of the Refreshment Room where the final heart-breaking scenes were shot.

Brief Encounter tells the story of housewife Laura Jesson, whose repressed romance with Alec Harvey, a doctor, begins when he removes a piece of grit from her eye at the station. Although both married, they continue to meet there until Alec moves abroad.

Thanks to its association with Brief Encounter, which ranks second in the British Film Institute’s Top 100 Best British Films, Carnforth Station has been voted as one of the country’s most romantic stations.

And 75 years on, it is now the main reason why people visit Carnforth Station Heritage Centre, according to its manager, John Adams who said: ‘Visitors go into raptures about Brief Encounter.’

Among them is Gyles Brandreth, who became the centre’s latest patron after being impressed by a visit there and declaring the station as his favourite.

Little wonder then that the heritage centre has won a plethora of awards. In 2019, it was named Best Small Visitor Attraction at Lancashire Tourism Awards and Best Visitor Attraction at the Bay Business Awards. It has also won two bronze UK National Coach Awards thanks to its link up with Leighton Hall nearby.