WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND

GB
1961
1hr 39mins
Dir: Bryan Forbes
Starring: Alan Bates and Hayley Mills

After taking refuge on a farm, a murderer on the run is mistaken by three children as the Second Coming of Christ

There is one scene in this classic drama which shows Hayley Mills running onto a railway track and into a tunnel. This was the 144-yard long Newline (or Britannia) Tunnel, near Bacup in Lancashire, the route through which closed in 1947 some fourteen years before filming. The frontage to Clitheroe station also appears in the background of one earlier scene.

Police scour the disused railway line between Bacup and Rochdale near Britannia. The skew bridge actually carried the Lee Moor Colliery Tramway over the railway. It still stands today, but the railway is now a footpath.
Hayley Mills runs into Newline Tunnel in Bacup. Although the line from Bacup down to Rochdale via Whitworth closed as a through route in 1947, the line through the tunnel remained open for goods as far as Facit until 5th May 1952. The tracks then remained in situ for wagon storage until 1964, though they saw little use.
Hayley Mills inside the tunnel
Another shot inside the tunnel but this time looking the other way
This is the abandoned and derelict Bacup Shed signal box. Note that the semaphore signal still stands adjacent to the box and that the track bed in the immediate foreground has been partly covered over with earth. The gradient of the line here is severe, dropping down at a grueling 1:34 into the fog towards Bacup station.
And now for something a little more conventional. Hayley Mills and Alan Barnes walking down King Street in Clitheroe with the railway station clearly visible in the background.