The North East Film Archive is one of a network of regional film archives established to collect, preserve and show film made in, or about the North East of England. Our collections are non-fiction, and date from the early 1900s to the present day, providing a rich record of life in the region over the 20th century. Many of our films are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Keighley and Worth Valley Railway
Station to station by steam locomotive on the Keighley and Worth Valley ‘heritage’ railway.
From the collection of:
Overview
The golden years for steam locomotives return to a scenic ribbon of track that once served West Yorkshire wool mills and villages. Re-opened in 1968, the Keighley and Worth Valley railway travels through the wuthering moorland near Haworth that fired the Brontë sisters’ imagination. A young Jenny Agutter also walked the platforms of the quaint Oakworth station whilst filming scenes for the hugely popular British movie, ‘The Railway Children’.
Locations on the KWVR were used by the BBC television series The Railway Children (in 1968), and the subsequent period film, both based on Edith Nesbit’s novel. Between 8th and 12th June 1970 Bernard Cribbins, as lovable railway porter Mr Perks, and Jenny Agutter, as Edwardian teen Bobby, filmed at Oakworth station and on rail tracks near Mytholmes tunnel (for the landslide and red bloomers scene). In the same year, amateur filmmaker Leonard Winter joined steam train enthusiasts on this captivating trip with his 9.5mm cine camera. Winter and his wife Jean were members of the long-established Newcastle and District ACA, one of the earliest British cine clubs, formed in 1927 by James Cameron and friends.
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