THE VIRGIN AND THE GYPSY

GB
1970
1hr 35mins
Dir: Christopher Miles
Starring: Joanna Shimkus and Franco Nero

The daughter of a clergyman falls in love with a gypsy fortune-teller

Based on the 1926 D. H. Lawrence novella of the same name, this romantic drama relates the story of two sisters, daughters of an Anglican vicar, who return from overseas to a drab, lifeless vicarage in the post-war East Midlands. D. H. Lawrence set the opening scenes of his short story at Cromford station close to where he lived in Derbyshire, and in a rare effort at continuity, this is the actual railway location used in the film though for some inexplicable reason it masquerades as ‘Colgrave’. Interestingly, the scenes at Cromford featured the rare occurrence of a privately preserved steam train being filmed on BR metals during the ‘steam ban’. Industrial Peckett 0-4-0ST No.1999 North Western Gas Board with a Midland Railway six-wheel coach and a Metropolitan Railway coach were all hired from the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway. The loco came by road, but the two coaches arrived by rail, and the train steamed up and down the Matlock line with a BR crew for a couple of days in June 1969.

The canopy and ornamental ironwork of Cromford station in Derbyshire
This is most unusual. Peckett 0-4-0ST No.1999 North Western Gas Board is framed by the footbridge as it pulls into Cromford.
This good shot shows the guard giving the train the ‘right away’. Note that the locomotive’s North Western Gas Board nameplate has been replaced by something a little more traditional. It has been covered by an M.R. board, to denote its mock allegiance to the Midland Railway.
In this shot looking south from the footbridge at Cromford we are treated to a lovely view of the train pulling away after its brief stop. Note Cromford Viaduct at the end of the platforms which takes the line over the River Derwent.