The Holmfirth (Summer Wine) Branch Line

Holmfirth was, in its genesis, little more than a northern industrial textile town, despite the fact that it nestled in some stunningly beautiful countryside. By the mid-1960s many of the mills had gone out of business and the short branch railway had closed in May 1965. For years the station buildings and many of the mills stood derelict, gaunt decaying reminders of Victorian enterprise that the modern world had sadly passed by. Then in 1971 something rather unusual happened that would change Holmfirth forever, the writer Roy Clarke was commissioned to write a short play about three old men for the BBC's "Comedy Playhouse Series". In June 1972 a BBC film crew arrived in Holmfirth, and on 4th January 1973 the first-ever "Last of the Summer Wine" programme hit the TV screens.

Alan Earnshaw is a professor of modern history (transport) and a respected author/lecturer/broadcaster on the subject. On leaving school began a commercial apprenticeship and trained as an engineer with the David Brown Group, working on all kinds of transport projects, from high speed trains, commercial vehicles, helicopters, naval and merchant ship-building, racing cars and tractors. He has also had a life-long interest in railways, even working as a Chief Executive for a local authority-owned railway company in the rail privatisation era. He has also acted as an advisor to the UK government, to local authorities, preserved railways and film and television companies.

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