Phantom Ride on the Furness Railway (1901)

Furness Abbey
1900
Silent
1m

A driver's view of the Furness Railway through Furness Abbey Tunnel and Station.

This picturesque railway tour opens with a fleeting glimpse of the ruins of Furness Abbey (on the left) before continuing through a tunnel past the grand railway hotel and on through the ornate Furness Abbey station. A platform-full of passengers, including a well-dressed lady cyclist and her family, stand frozen as the train passes - perhaps bemused by its refusal to stop...

The station at Furness Abbey was opened in 1846 and began receiving passengers from further afield in 1862. Services called at Furness Abbey to allow passengers to use the Furness Abbey Hotel, a converted 17th century manor house purchased by the railway company in 1847. The 12th-century Furness Abbey was once one of the wealthiest and most powerful Cistercian monasteries in the country. Hymned by William Wordsworth in his Prelude and sketched by JMW Turner, its ruins remain a popular tourist attraction.

On the Move

Britain in the early 20th century was a society in a hurry - and transport was changing fast.

The era of mass transportation launched by the Victorians gathered pace in the Edwardian age. Mitchell & Kenyon’s films feature countless trains, buses and trams, as well as horse-drawn coaches and bicycles, though cars are still a rarity.

People where the duo’s stock-in-trade, but transport could also take a leading role. Films feature boats, ferries and ocean liners, but much more common - and frequently magical - are those which take us on a journey by train or, especially, by tram, gliding through space and time into the heart of the towns and cities of our ancestors.