THIS is a story of two railway station clocks many miles apart. Spectator was touched to read in a recent obituary on the late Walter Hartley, a stalwart supporter of the Wensleydale Railway Association, that when he proposed to his future wife under the clock at Northallerton station he asked her whether she would marry him when the time was right.

Last Sunday, in a completely different context on the way home from a sunny day trip to Morecambe, Spectator called at the nearby Carnforth station to see the clock under which director David Lean recorded transactions by illicit fictional lovers Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in the classic 1945 film Brief Encounter.

It was a poignant experience to stand under and photograph that clock, restored to working order with the help of the Friends of Carnforth after years of shameful neglect by people in more direct authority who really should have known better.

Yet Spectator found it impossible to recapture the faintest flavour of the past on an almost deserted station. All he heard was the swish of Sir Richard Branson's electrified Virgin trains sweeping north to Carlisle, or south to Lancaster and Preston, and the clanking of an arthritic Arriva North West train on a local service. He concluded, sadly, that the busy image of Carnforth which has been handed down to us on screen belongs to a long lost steam age.

Spectator was struck by two marked contrasts. Carnforth has kept its clock and its old buildings, albeit with a wall plaque and a couple of tourist shops cashing in on the enduring fame of the film, but its platforms appear to have been closed to all but local traffic.

Northallerton, which has been similarly electrified, may have lost its old timepiece years ago and its Victorian platform buildings may have been supplanted by things which are little more than glorified garden sheds, but at least you can still catch the occasional GNER express to and from London.

Inspired timing

FAIR waves the golden corn, forage crops are still occupying some farmers and Young Farmers' Clubs are putting their meetings on hold "until after the harvest". It's the show season for livestock farmers putting their best animals in the great shop window of the judging ring.

Pretty busy, all ways round, down on the farm you might think but Defra must feel that, after a hard day, a few hours with the paperwork is a relaxing break.

North Yorkshire farmers have already received their Information Statement (Stage 1) of the new Single Payments Scheme and farmers elsewhere in the North will get theirs shortly. Once the statement is received, farmers have just 28 days to confirm historical details of their businesses.

Any failure to confirm, or correct, the statement in that time will affect their new single farm payment for the next eight years. Really, Mrs Beckett, did it have to be done in August?

Stating the obvious

The label on a pre-pack of oxtail in the Safeway supermarket in Barnard Castle said "beef oxtail". Is there any other sort?

We are sure Ken Morrison will get this sorted out in time.