Tonight! Saturday 26th November 7pm – Film screening at The Gothic Warehouse, Cromford Mill….


Film screening venue: The Gothic Warehouse Cromford Mill, Derbyshire

The Arkwright Society in Cromford, setting for the World Heritage Cromford Mills site is hosting the first Full Circle film screening in this area.  We are pleased to be screening local films of Matlock and Matlock Bath, Cromford, Ripley and much much more. These films came to light through the film searches carried out by local groups as part of this Heritage Lottery Funded project, developed by MACE – the screen archive for the Midlands.

Phyllis Higton holding her father Harry Gill's camera

This unseen footage was deposited with MACE by Phyllis Higton, daughter of the locally famous photographer Harry Gill. Another local resident, also called Phyllis,  deposited some lovely local footage of the Starkholmes Carnival  with MACE filmed by her father.

Carnival queen at Starkholmes carnival - Phyllis Wayne Collection


IN AN AGE WHEN the media was limited to newspapers and the wireless, Harry Gill followed an unusual occupation. He was a press photographer: moreover, he was one of an elite handful who chose to follow the uncertain, though exciting, freelance route. For nearly 50 years there were few picture and news editors on local and regional papers in the North and Midlands unfamiliar with Harry Gill’s work. And, gradually as his contacts and experience grew, he was used increasingly by national newspapers. The by-line on the back of prints – Photo by H. Gill, Bradley House, Dale Road, Matlock – became acknowledged as a by-word for reliability and professionalism. Michael Fay

If you have any films or moving image that you would like to put in safekeeping and to share with the community please contact Kay Ogilvie, senior curator Full Circle project kay.ogilvie@ tiscali.co.uk  and to find out more visit http://www.macearchive.org/Full-Circle.html

Archive film screening tonight! At Holymoorside Village Hall Derbyshire as part of the Full Circle Heritage Lottery funded project….


Cans of film stored in temperature controlled conditions at the MACE archive

We are very pleased to be bringing an archive film screening to Holymoorside Village Hall tonight at 7pm. This is part of the Full Circle project developed by MACE to help protect and share our screen heritage. Tonight’s films will include 1960s films of floods in Matlock and Matlock Bath and the big freeze in the Matlock area of 1963. All filmed by the late Harry Gill a photographer from Matlock Bath and kindly deposited with our film archive for safe keeping by his daughter Phyllis Higton.

For more than 50 years, Harry Gill was a professional photographer who recorded thousands of events – from those of national importance to the homespun familiarity of local weddings. Although his territory was Matlock and the Peak District, he worked wherever commissions took him. Now, over 30 years after his death, Harry Gill’s photographic collection has been rediscovered – a unique, fascinating archive of life, people and places spanning 40 years until the late 1960s. http://www.andrewspages.dial.pipex.com/matlock/mag/reflections/gill.htm
Michael Fay

Holymoorside Village Hall, Holymoorside Road, Derbyshire S42 7DX Telephone: 01246 569882

If you have any films or moving image that you would like to preserve for the future and share with the community please contact Kay Ogilvie senior curator Full Circle kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk