The big launch is on July 2nd, and there will be a public screening on July 7th.

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

Peter Harmer outside the Community Centre

Local film-maker Peter Harmer has been working with the archive project team at our regular Thursday sessions to help us write and make a documentary about the history of the cinema.  Last week we interviewed local people about their memories of the cinema, and this week Peter showed us how to use our camera equipment to interview people.

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)

Planning the site

Some of the suggestions for the ‘about this site’ were:

We are a group of students from Sawston Village College.  We are investigating the history of the cinema in Sawston and the memories that people can remember from their past.

We are going to put together a film of the memories we find and place some on our website.

(Brogan)

Hi.   This is one of the members of Sawston Cinema.  All of the members come from Sawston Village College.  We meet up on a Thursday.

We talk about the history of the Sawston Cinema, aka Spicers Theatre.  We have people from the earlier days of the cinema.  They tell us about what they remember.

(Thomas)

Site design

This project is all about bringing back the memories of the original cinema in Sawston.  We are going to interview those with memories and record them using both audio and video.  We shall then display them on this website.

(anon)

Talking about the site

Getting ready

During our interview with Pearl we learnt that the cinema was always full and that it was very popular because there wasn’t much else to do in the village.   It was a very important factor of the village.  This was different to now because they used to show the news, the main film and another film, instead of just one.

The cinema seemed important to her family because she was named after a famous actress.  It would cost a sixpence for the front row, but it would cost more for the back rows.

Pearl said that the screen covered most of the back wall.  She used to come with her older sisters, which was exciting for her.

When Pearl heard it was going to close, she was very sad.

Erin

Asking questions

The first film was shown in 1932 was called Dhark.  It was a silent film but coming here was a step up from going into Cambridge.  The cinema used to show a film every Thursday, Friday and Saturday but after a year there was a new manager that came in who showed a film every week.

Brogan

We sat in a circle

We were speaking to Doug and he says he lost his elastic toy plane up on the roof of the cinema.  He told us that the films shown at the cinema were silent, black and white films, a bit like Charlie Chaplin and early Laurel and Hardy.  He also remembered the usher and his name was Mr Garret.  And the cinema had a pianist called Fred Samuel and a violinist.  People would smoke at the cinema and the ashtrays were in the chairs.

I spoke to Paul Mann, 82.  He was a very nice man, and he told us about how he met Pearl in the cinema, as his first date.  You paid more to go further back in the cinema.  There was no problem looking over people.  The posters which advertised the cinema were yellow.

During our interview with Pearl we learned that the cinema was extremely important to the community.  It was always full and the seats were cheap.

Talking about the old cinema

Pearl comes from a family in which cinema is of some importance.  Pearl’s mother named her after the actress Pearl White.  Pearl also named her own child after the actress Valerie Hobbs.

Pearl had been going to the cinema since the age of five with her two sisters.  During the Second World War Pearl loved going to the cinema during the black out.  Often her sisters would abandon her in the dark then suddenly jump out at her!  But they would always make up with the sweetest ice-cream.

Safiyya