Brief Encounter and Carnforth Station Visitors Centre Lancaster Canal Carnforth

Carnforth Station & Visitor Centre

Outstanding top attraction at Carnforth just to the north of Lancaster and Morecambe is Carnforth Station & Visitor Centre. Made famous by the 1945 David Lean Film 'Brief Encounter', which was filmed here, the station first opened in 1846. From the late Victorian period up until the 1960s, Carnforth was a major station junction - so busy in fact that Lean had to film by night in 1945 so as not to disrupt the daytime train service.

After considerable efforts to restore this famous station, the award winning Carnforth Visitor Centre opened in 2003. Housed within carefully restored historic station buildings, the visitor centre has a dedicated Brief Encounter film exhibition alongside other fascinating exhibits on Carnforth Station and town history. Particular detail is given to Carnforth residents and workers at the station, exploring in-depth the history of their lives in Carnforth. The history of the railway here at this one time most important junction is also given due attention.

On-site is the recreated Refreshment Room, as it was in the Brief Encounter film, where Alec and Laura first met. (you can hire the Refreshment Room for Private Events, Tel.01524 732432 for details). Regular events run through the year at Carnforth Station including the Age of Steam Festival in August, lunchtime Jazz in the Refreshment Room and Antique & Collectors Fairs. See the Carnforth Station Visitor Centre webguide right for event listings. A superb gift shop, with both Brief Encounter and railway gifts, is also on-site.

Carnforth Station & Visitor Centre, Warton Road, Carnforth, LA5 9TR. Tel.01524 735165. Open daily 10am-4pm (Closed Mondays from October to Easter).

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Attractions Around Carnforth & Lancaster Canal Boat Trips

Carnforth's superb location in the heart of Morecambe Bay bordering both the Lake District and Yorkshire means a number of attractions are within easy reach. Just north of Carforth at Silverdale sits the RSPB Leighton Moss Reserve, the largest reedbed in the North West and home to numerous birds including breeding bitterns and marsh harriers. A choice of trails and hides are within the reserve with many trails accessible to wheelchairs. One trail runs alongside two coastal lagoons on this stretch of the coast.

Facilities on the Leighton Moss Reserve include seven hides with one hide just 160 yards from the visitor centre, three nature trails, a tearoom and a shop stocking bird books, gifts and binoculars. Car parking and bike racks are available, with on-site toilets and baby changing facilities as well as a picnic area. The reserve is pushchair and largely wheelchair friendly. See the RSPB weblink right for seasonal highlights and events. Other attractions within easy reach of Carnforth include Docker Park Farm Visitor Centre at Arkholme (see weblink right), the spectacular Ingleton Waterfalls Walk pushing into Yorkshire and nearby Lancaster and Morecambe with their choice of attractions.

Fully navigable, the 41 mile long Lancaster Canal pushes up from Lancaster through Bolton-Le-Sands to Carnforth. Waterbus Canal Boats run regularly over the summer season from Lancaster to Carnforth. See the Lancaster Canal Packet Boats webguide right for details. Spectacular views of Morecambe Bay and the Lune Aqueduct are along the way, with stops made at Hest Bank and Bolton-Le-Sands. A cruise is also run from Carnforth north to Tewitfield.

Lancaster Canal Cruises/Budgie Transport, Unit 10, Victoria Court, Penny Street, Lancaster, Lancashire LA1 1XN. Tel. 01524 389410. See also the Canal Turn Canalside Pub, Lancaster Road, Carnforth, Lancashire, LA5 9EA. Tel. 01524 734750. (The Canal Turn's webguide link is to the right for details - an excellent choice for families).

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Brief Encounter Film at Carnforth Station

'Forbidden love in ordinary lives', says Richard Dyer, is the appeal in Brief Encounter to gay readers, as do fear of discovery and settling for respectability. (Richard Dyer, BFI Classics, Brief Encounter, 1993). Dyer draws attention to the fact that the film feels 'gay' to himself and others because it was made with gay feeling, infused by its writer Noel Coward. Brief Encounter (1945), filmed largely here at Carnforth Station, now restored into a visitor centre, tells the story of Laura's illicit love for doctor Alec Harvey. The narrative, as Dyer suggests, is told by Laura (Celia Johnson). It all started 'just through me getting a little piece of grit in my eye', at Milford Junction station (aka Carnforth Station). Alec obligingly removes the grit, and accompanied by the lone playing of Rachmaninov's second piano concerto by soloist Eileen Joyce, Laura tells her story silently and in confessional/guilt ridden tone in flashback to 'ultra ordinary' husband Fred - bastion of patriarchal authority.

Brief Encounter has captured the imagination of audiences, gay and straight, for many years. The intensity of feeling, the oppression of a patriarchal society which dumbs down passion - this film still continues to connect, whilst commenting simultaneously on the everyday goings on of small town England. This British film reminds of a time when British cinema presented 'a pretty narrow idea of Englishness, a white one, and facile class distinctions' - note Myrtle Bagot, the buffet manageress - a figure of fun to Laura (Celia Johnson), and denotations of middle class life with times for dinner and servants. Highly recommended is taking a look at the David Lean film, and Richard Dyer's book, before visiting the now splendid reconstruction of Milford Junction station cafe and the accompanying visitors centre, where in one room the film is constantly showing.

Re-live the brief encounter at Milford. Many features from the film remain at Carnforth Station, including the famous Station clock.

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