Sawston Cinema Archive Project » Archive

What the cinema used to show…

Cinema Archive Project — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:05:42 +0000

Tonight Sawston Film Club is showing The Duchess at the cinema,but we thought it would be interesting to show you what was being screened fifty years ago, in December 1958. Here’s the programme, kindly shared with us:

We’ll be putting more programmes and other material up in the Cinema History section of the site.

Moving forward on the archive project

Cinema Archive Project — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:55:15 +0000

Yesterday was the last meeting of the Cinema Archive project before the end of term, though we will probably do some filming at the screening of MAMMA MIA! next week to use in our film.

While some of the group were helping Peter Harmer film members of the Sawston community, the rest of us worked with Bill Thompson to make a podcast – and here it is. We hope you enjoy it!

Archive Podcast

Cinema History

Cinema Archive Project — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 07:38:01 +0000

The Foundation Stone

As part of our work on the archive project we have been researching the history of the cinema in Sawston. We found a web page that has a lot of information – you can read it here – and it says

The tradition of the benevolent employer was continued in the 20th century by H. G. Spicer (d. 1944), who bought the paper-mill in 1917. He and his wife gave land for the village college in 1930, and in 1932 built a theatre, later converted to a cinema and closed in 1963. (fn. 42) His wife helped to found the Sawston maternity and infant welfare centre in 1918, to which H. G. Spicer left £1,000. (fn. 43) By 1961 the firm of Spicers owned more than 100 houses in the area, and in 1971 it held two blocks of flats and money in trust for necessitous former employees and their dependents. (fn. 44)

Kicking off the new term

Cinema Archive Project — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:47:06 +0000

Term has started at the Village College and we’re holding the first meeting of the archive project this afernoon. Julie Heathcote is leading a session about oral history, talking about how we can start to get information about the history of the cinema to use in making our film.

There are a load of us from the Village College, and some people who remember going to the cinema before it closed, all those years ago.

Cinema Memories

Cinema Archive Project — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Older members of the community visited us today and they spoke about their memories of the old cinema. It was really interesting to hear their stories, and it has given us lots of ideas for the sort of things we might put into our film.