Carnforth

We went over to Carnforth yesterday. Carnforth is a small town. It grew up around the railway & its station – the latter famously featured in the film “Brief Encounter”. When we moved to the area some 40 years ago, it was a rather black dreary place with few attractions. These days it seems to have picked up.

While the Fox put away our shopping & my wheelchair, I sat in the car & read a poster that pointed out that Carnforth high street has full occupancy, not just charity shops. There can’t be many towns these days that can say that. Most of the shops are small family businesses, selling with advice & expertise about their products.

I suppose the turnaround really began with the arrival of the Booth’s supermarket (where we had been shopping). Since then a large Tesco arrived & more recently a large Aldi. Parts have been redeveloped giving a fresher look to the town. The station is now more of a museum than anything else. Trains do still stop. But on the platform there is a pub, a tea shop in the style of the one in the film, shops selling model trains etc., all sorts of memorabilia.

For us one of the attractions was the Carnforth bookshop. It has thousands of second hand books, 14 rooms worth. Unfortunately, these days this is less of an attraction as there is no lift, so the only sections I can get to is the stationary & new books, a comparatively small area & not the most exciting.

It’s good to see a town which once was so bleak now looking so much more vibrant. Long may it continue &, for that matter, I hope many other places, such as Morecambe, can learn lessons,  follow Carnforth’s example & prosper.