Town On Trial (1957)

[docjohn]

I've just watched this movie--it was screened at lunchtime on C4 last week.

The Imdb database just says "Shepperton Studios" with no statement of where the town really was. A subsequent discussion on that website suggests the town was possibly Shepperton itself or Laleham.

Well, the station featured had "Southern Railway" on the nameboard--which is anachronistic;if it said anything, it would've been Southern Region in 1957--and it can't have been Shepperton Station as Shepperton is all on the level. (The station in the film was in a cutting.) Laleham has no station. But that doesn't mean a combination of scenes wasn't used with stock footage of a station.

Although I have driven through the area, I don't know it at all. But the church at the end is on the outside curve of a right-angled bend of a road. The churches in Shepperton and Laleham are all beside straight roads, according to my A-Z of Surrey. There are other town shots in the film but there are no distinctive (to me) features.

So, if it wasn't Shepperton or Laleham, where could the town have been? It could've been any town in the South East! But I deduce that some people who post here are ex-film crew, so perhaps somebody knows..........

[Alan F]

The station is Weybridge, viewed from the car park on the south side, although the map at the start of the film, which establishes Oakley Park, is a map of Banbury.

[Bernardo]

The station is Weybridge, viewed from the car park on the south side, although the map at the start of the film, which establishes Oakley Park, is a map of Banbury.

That reply is why I just love this forum.

[wadey]

Does anybody have a "still" of the church used in the film ?

[MovieDudeToo]

Here you go wadey. The church and the steeple.

[Alan F]

There is enough info on that board to make the job easy.



The church is Holy Trinity, Ponsonby Road, Roehampton.

[Mark O]

The church is Holy Trinity, Ponsonby Road, Roehampton.

Thanks for the info Alan, the Church was the main location I was intrigued about, though in the actual film it's obvious the steeple is a mock one for the close-up filming, also for Banbury..

[wadey]

Thanks, I'd looked at this as a possible before but in the close ups (studio) the details weren't right

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/21026

[docjohn]

Thanks guys for coming together and resolving this riddle. This forum certainly takes off when IMDB fails!!

[cassidy]

Wherever it is I'd like to go there if the petrol is that cheap !!