Thanks to your readers for their help RECENTLY you kindly published a letter from me, requesting assistance from your readers to help me find the little bridge shown in two scenes in Brief Encounter. After this letter had been printed I received between 20 and 30 telephone calls, suggesting various bridges. Bowness Bridge, St. Johns, and Troutbeck were all suggested, as were a dozen or so, which were described by location. Unable to do any more research remotely by referring to books, and photographs on the Internet, I popped into the car, and visited the most likely sites. I found what I now believe to be the Brief Encounter bridge, in the Langdale valley, about 200 yards away from the "Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel." This bridge fitted the still photograph I had taken from Brief Encounter perfectly. The bridge, the character of the stream and the contour of the hills in the background were all correct. This bridge is also only a few miles away from the hotel where the actors stayed during the filming. The location for this bridge was suggested by a Mrs Walker, who told me on the telephone, that she had visited the bridge in 1946 (when presumably Brief Encounter was being shown in cinemas) and was told that she was visiting the bridge that could be seen in the film. This was February 1945, and so I wonder if this might have been the "Old Dungeon Ghyll Hotel" or perhaps it was one of the pubs further down the valley. The War had been on since the end of 1939, so to find a cellar stocked with alcohol like this suggests that the pub was well off the beaten track. I had thought that the actors had stayed at the Low Wood Hotel, but two of the people who telephoned me, said that local rumour in 1945 suggested that it was the Langdale Chaise Hotel, also at Ambleside.I have contacted both of these hotels, but neither have any records from the period. So, while I have managed to answer one question about Brief Encounter, another one has arisen. There were approximately 70 members of the cast and crew of Brief Encounter, and in February 1945 many of the hotels in the north of England were full of evacuees, from the bombing of London. I know that the cast and crew of Brief Encounter stayed at five separate hotels. The Royal Station Hotel Carnforth, The Royal Hotel Bolton Le Sands, either the Low Wood Hotel or the Langland Chaise Hotel at Ambleside, and one hotel in Morecambe, and one in Lancaster. I wonder if any of your readers may have any information about which hotels were used? If anybody was on any of the filming locations, or has any information about the hotels, or in fact any other information about the filming of Brief Encounter, could they please contact webmaster(at)carnforth-station.co.uk "Thanks to your readers for their help" unknown local paper circa April 2000
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