With the 80th VE Day celebrations highlighting many personal stories and memories, more are being stirred by another 80th anniversary which highlights the North West’s cultural, as well as, practical contribution to wartime morale.
Not only was Carnforth Station the hub of many wartime activities and manoeuvres, in 1945 it was the fictional Milford Junction in the classic wartime romance Brief Encounter, with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard. To celebrate 80 years since its filming, the station is holding Carnforth’s first ever 1940s Weekend on the 28th and 29th June.
For Suzie Reynolds of nearby Leighton Hall, supporting the forthcoming event brings back stories from her mother-in-law, Helen Reynolds. During the war, Helen was part of the team of volunteers serving donated food and drink to troops passing through the station; even though she was demoted from making sandwiches on her very first day, because she used up the entire day’s margarine ration in one morning!
“Instead, she was sent out on the platform,” recalls Suzie, “Where, when troop trains slowed down to pass through, she ran up and down the platform with tea made in a fire bucket, so the soldiers could lean out and scoop it up in their mugs.”
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Helen and her husband Major Reynolds had initially volunteered Leighton Hall as a hospital, but the War Office deemed the water supply too bad, to the surprise of the family, who “were just used to awful things coming out of the taps!”
Undaunted, they opened their home to French, Polish, Canadian and Australian servicemen who were unable to get home on leave, many of whom became close friends.
The anniversaries have inspired Suzie and her family to highlight a special piece of memorabilia, gifted to them by Ed Hinke a Canadian: “He won the Distinguished Flying Cross, and asked my mother-in-law to accompany him to the presentation at Buckingham Palace. We have his diary entry recounting the day along with his picture, and a globe he gifted us. We’ve put them on display in the Hall’s Music Room, where the servicemen loved to play piano, sing, and let their hair down away from the fighting; a poignant reminder of all those who came from around the world to stand together.”
Held to coincide with Armed Forces Day on Saturday 28th June, Carnforth Station’s 1940’s Weekend will include re-enactments, live music and performances, and a display of military vehicles from the Military Vehicle Trust, as well as fairground attractions, model railway, vintage cars, tractors, stalls, catwalk, jive classes and refreshments.
“Carnforth Station is a unique heritage resource, with whom we are proud to partner,” says Suzie. “Regularly voted most loved British film of all time, who still doesn’t get ‘something in their eye’ watching Brief Encounter? The 1940’s weekend will be a wonderful celebration, and chance to share more stories, like the one about the time my mother-in-law claimed to have unintentionally helped a German prisoner of war escape… ask me when you next visit the Hall for the full story!”
In 2017, a Time Out poll of 150 actors, directors, writers, producers, and critics ranked it the 12th-best British film ever.
