Wings of Mystery (Children’s Film Foundation)

Carrying pigeon baskets, Jane (Judy Geeson) and Don Blakey (Hennie Scott) walk with Mr. Bell (Arnold Ridley). Douglas Road in Parkwood Springs, Sheffield with the chimney of Neepsend Brick Works in the left distance.

The three leave the road and climb a hill where the birds are released. Douglas Road with the footpath leading over the moor above the Upper Don Valley with the chimneys of Saxon Works in the right distance.

Working in the same steel works laboratory as Jane and Don’s brother Ted, Mike McCarthy (Patrick Jordan) leaves the building to make a phone call. Antony Blair identifies this as looking north on South Road in Southall, Middlesex with the former Post Office wall and Kings Hall in the background.

Replacing Antony's Google image, Robbie Blair provides this wider view as conformation of the location.

The siblings look after Mr. Bell’s pigeons while the old man recovers from a sprained ankle.

Jane and Don cycle to the flying club for a picnic. This is Elstree Aerodrome on Hogg Lane between Letchmore Heath and Elstree in Hertfordshire.

The shot cuts to the pair as they ride towards Jeff who has just landed in his light aircraft. Elstree Aerodrome, Elstree.

Given a form for Ted to sign to apply for his pilot’s licence, Don and Jane cycle to the steel works. The English Steel Corporation’s River Don Works on Brightside Lane in Sheffield, Yorkshire.

The two dismount and enter the works’ offices. Number 1 Gate of the River Don Works on Brightside Lane. The ESC was nationalised twice, in 1951 and 1967, before the site passed to Sheffield Forgemasters International in 1983.

On their way back to the airfield with the signed form, Jane and Don spot McCarthy’s car parked near to a foreign car outside a pub. Identified by Geoff Dodd as Butterfly Lane, Aldenham in Hertfordshire with The Battle Axes public house on the corner of Aldenham Road. (RL)

Antony Blair replaces Geoff's Google image with this original.

Jane looks through one of the pub’s windows where she sees McCarthy speaking with a Stranger. The Battle Axes on the corner of Aldenham Road and Butterfly Lane, Aldenham in Hertfordshire. The pub appears in 'Man Accused', 'A Woman of Mystery', the Italo-West German 'A doppia faccia', 'Not Now Comrade' and 'Where the Spies Are'. (RL)

Antony Blair captured a similar view.

Becoming suspicious, the two notice that the Pontiac Bonneville is registered in Belgium. Looking back along Butterfly Lane with Penns Cottage visible in the distance in the centre Geoff adds. (RL)

Sunrise on Butterfly Lane by Antony Blair.

Don and Jane make their way home after paying Mr. Bell another visit. Mount Road in Parkwood Springs, Sheffield with Pickering Road crossing the background.

After tossing a pigeon from a steel works window, McCarthy runs home to retrieve the alloy sample that it was carrying.

Mr. Bell’s pigeons are released for exercise before a big race. Parkwood Springs with properties on Douglas Road in the right distance.

Jane and Don run to the station to load Mr. Bell’s birds onto the train. The ramp leading up to platforms 3 and 4 at Heeley station on London Road in Heeley, Sheffield.

The train carrying everyone else's birds departs just before the children reach the platform. Closing in 1968, Heeley station stood on the Midland Main Line south of Sheffield.

Borrowing Jeff’s aircraft, Ted flies the pigeons to Oosterbrugge in Belgium accompanied by Don and Jane. Mick Symes noticed that the image is reversed and identifies the location as the entrance to Newhaven Harbour in Sussex with the Napoleonic Fort in the foreground, the sandy beach at Tide Mills beyond and Seaford along with Seaford Head in the far distance.

Without an aircraft to borrow, I took this view from Castle Hill and reversed it. (SD)

Soon after landing, Jane and Don find McCarthy who has couriered the other pigeons from England.

After Don and Jane return a pigeon to M. Dubois, president of the Oosterbrugge pigeon club, McCarthy makes his way to a rendezvous with his Contact.

McCarthy approaches the bar where the Pontiac is parked outside. The Three Horseshoes public house next to the Grand Union Canal at Bourne End near Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.

Antony Blair took this matching shot.

Having followed McCarthy to the bar, Antoine (Graham Aza) and Yvette Dubois (Francesca Bertorelli) flee from the bar with Don and Jane after taking the experimental alloy. The Three Horseshoes also appears in ‘The Bargee’.

A renewed bridge features in Antony Blair's comparison.

While McCarthy chases the children, the Agent (Anthony Jacobs) runs to his car to join the pursuit. The Three Horseshoes on Winkwell, Bourne End in Hertfordshire.

The pub's narrow canopy has disappeared in Antony's view.

Antoine, Yvette, Don and Jane arrive in the grounds of a large house before being cornered by McCarthy and the Agent. Geoff Dodd advises, but he says, credit goes to Anthony McKay who has identified this as Barnes Lodge in Kings Langley, Herts. Sadly demolished in 1975 it was used in episodes of both 'The Saint' and 'The Baron'. (RL)

When the boys are trapped inside the house, the girls look for a means of releasing them. See above capture. (RL)

With one of Mr. Bell’s pigeons carrying the precious alloy back home, McCarthy catches a plane to England.

After landing, the devious spy takes a cab to St. Pancras station. Various aspects of the station also feature in ‘Smashing Time’, ‘The Servant’, ‘The Ladykillers’, ‘Richard III’, ‘The Fourth Protocol’, ‘McVicar’, ‘The Comedy Man’, ‘‘Mona Lisa’, ‘A Cry from the Streets’, ‘The Painted Smile’, ‘Voyage of the Damned’, ‘Nuns on the Run’ and ‘Simon and Laura’.

Taken from a similar position. (PW)

McCarthy runs through the ticket barrier and jumps onto the train for the north. St. Pancras station on Euston Road in NW1.

These platforms were removed when the terminus underwent redevelopment to became home to Eurostar services in 2007. (PW)

Flying back from Belgium in Jeff’s light aircraft, Ted (Richard Carpenter), Jane and Don arrive back at the flying club. Elstree Aerodrome on Hogg Lane, Elstree in Hertfordshire.

Receiving a cablegram from the children, Mr. Bell leaves his house just as McCarthy arrives. Mount Road in Parkwood Springs with the Douglas Hotel at the left end of the terrace.

After recovering the alloy, McCarthy leaves Mr. Bell’s back garden to see Ted’s car approaching. Mount Road with Pickering Road in the distance.

While Mr. Bell telephones the Police, Ted follows McCarthy after he drives away. Mount Road with Beatrice Place to the left.

McCarthy speeds along the hillside streets. Looking into Vale Road from the junction with Douglas Road in Parkwood Springs, Sheffield.

The camera pans with the cars. Douglas Road in the lost residential area of Parkwood Springs in the north of Sheffield.

As McCarthy disappears beneath a bridge, Ted, Jane and Don keep up their pursuit. Douglas Road with the corner of Wallace Road to the right and the bridge carrying the electrified railway between Sheffield Victoria and Penistone.

The chase continues, drawing near to the steel works.

A police car heads towards McCarthy as he approaches the steel works. Facing north-east on Brightside Lane, Sheffield.

With the Police in front and Ted’s Morris closing in behind, McCarthy gets out of his car. Just north of Number 1 Gate at the River Don Works with Number 2 Gate to the top left of centre.

Ted stops outside the steel works as McCarthy runs inside. Looking south-west towards the junction of Brightside Lane, Hawke Street and Upwell Street.

Inside the works, McCarthy hides behind a diesel shunting engine while Ted explains to the Police what’s happening. Facing the offices that front Brightside Lane within the north-western part of the River Don Works. The offices to the right of the doorway have since been demolished with the site now serving as a car park.

When the shunter moves away, McCarthy makes a run for it. The ESC’s River Don Works in Sheffield.

After being chased through the works the crook emerges into daylight. Looking north-east within the south-eastern part of the River Don Works complex on Brightside Lane, Sheffield in Yorkshire. The sheds to the right survive.

Two Police Officers spot McCarthy. The ESC’s River Don Works in Sheffield 9 with Number 2 Gate out of view behind the weighbridge hut to the right of centre.