Lancashire Accommodation

The Pressure of Time at Carnforth Station - famous set of the 1945 film 'Brief Encounter' staring Ce

Blackburn Cathedral. Blackburn, if you don't know, is historically a very musical town.

George Formby at the 'Grin Up North' Exhibition at the Museum of Lancashire in Preston.

The fantastic National Football Museum in Preston. No comment on this photo!

Lancashire Tourist Information, History of Football, Trevor Howard, Brief Encounter

I felt gay and happy and sort of released - in Lancashire of course! (Brief Encounter, 1945) Lancashire is quite simply one of the most diverse and interesting counties in the UK. Don't believe me? - well read on. The old mills are still standing, but dig dipper and you'll discover a rich and radical labour history. Ever heard of Selina Cooper of Burnley - radical socialist and suffragist, Kathleen Ferrier from Blackburn - the best contralto Britain has ever had!, Arthur Wharton - Black footballer who played for Preston North End from 1886-1887 and went on to become a miner and take part in the General Strike of 1926.

Discover the social history of football at the superb National Football Museum in Preston - it's FREE to enter!! Shop till you drop in historic Lancaster with it's medieval castle, cathedral and Victoriana which reaches new heights of grotesqueness! Fabulous. For walkers beautiful Rossendale and the Rossendale Way, Colne and Wycoller and the Forest of Bowland over Clitheroe way are just waiting to be discovered. Love Lancashire, love it's history, dig deeper!!Lancashire Accommodation Lancashire Hotels Preston Hotels Back to Northwest Tourist Information

Lancashire Towns & Cities!

Preston - City Lights: It is more than fitting that the National Football Museum should be located in Preston. It was Preston North End who were the first champions of the football league in 1889, and in the same season they won the FA Cup making them the first team to win the double. Preston, now a city, gets it's edge through it's multiculturalism and large student population. For restaurants, cafes, clubs and pubs you can do no better. The town centre is crammed with listed buildings and the Harris Art Gallery and Museum has some of the most exciting exhibitions in the North West, many with a nod to Preston's history.

Blackburn - it's got Northern Soul: Blackburn, in short, will surprise. Perhaps Blackburn's most famous prodigy was Kathleen Ferrier, described simply as the best Contralto England has ever produced. Her career, tragically cut short by cancer in 1953, was indeed unusual. With no formal musical training, although a talented piano player and musician, she went on to capture audiences worldwide with renditions such as Handel's 'The Messiah, Brahms' Alto Rhapsody and Four Serious Songs, Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Resurrection Symphony as well as Das Lied von der Erde. Blackburn is currently paying homage to their prodigy at the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, but it's celebration of music continues with the excellent venue King George's Hall which hosts classical, soul and many other musical performances.

Lancaster - A Historical Journey: Lancaster, from which the county derives it's name, is a historic journey indeed with ample evidence of Roman settlement, Georgian pomp and Victorian civic philanthropy gone particularly mad - the Ashton Memorial is particularly excessive!!! Lancaster's castle, looming over the town on the hill, is medieval in origin but now serves as prison and crown courts. Tours will take you down into the castle dungeons, as far as we know not in use for contemporary prisoners although considering Mr Blunkett's record he might be considering the option! Witch trials were held in the castle in 1612.

There's a twice weekly open air market, and Lancaster centre is crammed with specialist shops and all the regular names! Take time to mosey on down to the Customs House down on the quay which is now the Maritime Museum. There's some great pubs down on the quay also! Lancaster Canal runs through the town, so picturesque canal walks along the towpath are certainly on the menu in Lancaster.

Lancashire - a Radical Labour History

For those visitors who haven't come across a book by Jill Liddington and Jill Norris called 'One hand tied behind us. The Rise of the Women's Suffrage Movement' (new edition. 2000 published by Rivers Oram Press), this is perhaps an excellent first step in discovering particularly the radicalism and activism of working class women in Lancashire at the end of the 19th/early 20th century. Here you'll discover women like Selina Cooper of Burnley, Ethel Derbyshire from Blackburn, and Ada Nield Chew active particularly in Rossendale. These women had worked in the mills and Lancashire cotton workers were some of the 'highest paid and best organized amongst working class women. Selina Cooper, Ada Nield Chew and others were instrumental in organising working class women in Lancashire in the drive towards suffrage, but more than just the vote better conditions for the working class. Their politics were socialist and feminist, and they struggled with achieving equality as well in socialist circles.

Burnley's history is particularly radical, for this was once a hotbed of support for the Social Democratic Federation, of which Selina Cooper was a member before joining the Independent Labour Party.

Go back further and there was plenty of mayhem against the introduction of the power loom in the 1820s, and many machines were smashed particularly in Rossendale!

Brief Encounter - Camping it up at Carnforth

If you haven't discovered Carnforth Station, the setting for the 1945 film 'Brief Encounter', then get down there. The new visitor's centre has just opened with a series of exhibitions and photographs from the shooting of Brief Encounter, to the history of the station and the people that worked on it. The station cafe in the film has also been lovingly recreated on the platform. Lovers of the film will not be disappointed.

Forbidden love in ordinary lives, says Richard Dyer, 'makes (Brief Encounter) an obvious appeal 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 it's writer Noel Coward. Brief Encounter (1945), filmed largely here at Carnforth Station, now restored into a visitors' 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.

Friends of Carnforth Station: T: 01524 734377

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