The Gothic Warehouse at Cromford Mill, a World Heritage Site, hosts Full Circle Screening……….

The Gothic Warehouse at Cromford Mill, Derbyshire

We all had a wonderful evening watching archive film of the local area in the historic surroundings of Cromford Mill on Saturday 26th November. Hosted by The Arkwright Society and Angela Jones the Events officer. The Arkwright Society is the charity looking after this World Heritage Site a legacy of Sir Richard Arkwright and his construction of the world’s first successful water powered cotton spinning mill at Cromford in 1771. There are lovely canal side walks, guided tours of the site and characterful cafes and shops – well worth a visit and  Cromford railway station is only a few minutes away. http://www.arkwrightsociety.org.uk/.

Floods in Matlock 1965 from the Harry Gill Collection

Phyllis Higton, daughter of the locally famous photographer and later filmmaker, Harry Gill, kindly allowed her father’s films to be screened at  Cromford, knowing that they held so much interest locally. Phyllis has deposited the rest of her father’s collection with us at MACE for us to store them in our climatically controlled film archive. Look out for notices at Cromford Mill and locally as this is a huge collection and we will be screening more of this collection and others in 2012.

Phyllis Higton at the film screening of her father's films with one of her daughters

Phyllis came along with one of her daughters and thoroughly enjoyed seeing these films – they really evoked memories of Matlock and Matlock Bath (where she used to live). The flooding scenes were amazing – with a torrent of water rushing along Bakewell Road coming from the River Derwent. One person in the audience recognised her grandfather and another remembered riding on the amphibious vehicles to get across town.

Mary Beale

Another ‘moment’ of the evening was when Mary Beale (above) recognised herself as a young girl in 1954  in a film made by British Transport Films (BTF).  “The Peak  District” was one of many travelogue films made by the BTF film production unit.  They made a series of travelogue films to promote rail travel around the British Isles.There is a website dedicated to all the films made by this unit and you can buy some of them from Amazon or the  British Film Institute. http://www.britishtransportfilms.co.uk/

Phyllis Wayne (left)

Another film collection which we hope to be screening at Cromford in 2012 is from the collection of Phyllis Wayne. Phyllis Wayne and Phyllis Higton lived next door to each other and it is interesting to see how each of their father’s filmed the same events. We have got some very good coverage of the Starkholmes Carnival in the 1960s!

If you have any films that you would like advice on preserving and perhaps sharing with your community please get in contact with Kay Ogilvie, senior curator, Full Circle project kay.ogilvie@tiscali.co.uk and visit our Full Circle pages on the MACE website http://www.macearchive.org for more information.

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

Full house at The Ritz, Belper, Derbyshire over the weekend Discovery Days Festival screening Full Circle archive films….

Local people queued up on Saturday and Sunday to see the archive films......

What a fantastic weekend of films, walks, tours and lectures we had this weekend in Belper, Derbyshire. The Discovery Days Festival is still running until 30th October so there is still time to catch even more events! For more information visit http://www.derwentvalleymills.org. At The Ritz queues were forming to see the newly discovered films found through the Full Circle project of Belper and surrounding area.

At this lovely independent cinema you can buy home-made cakes!

The films we were screening at the Ritz were a mixture of home-movies and professional footage. Some of the home-movie material had been deposited with the Full Circle project by Stephen Walters and showed scenes in and around Belper during the 1960s.

BBC producer Teresa Mikula (East Midlands Today) talks to Stephen Walters about his film collection which was left to him by his uncle Norman Mellors

Teresa Mikula produces the BBC programme ‘Preserving the Past‘. She has been supporting the Full Circle project  and helping to bring the found footage to a wider audience. She interviewed Stephen about his uncle’s film collection and we will be seeing more of the footage and the interview in the Autumn series. Stephen said about the film screening:

I wouldn’t have missed it for the world! It was lovely to see the films up on the big screen and I’m looking forward to having a copy of my uncle’s film collection to view on DVD

Teresa Mikula, BBC producer of “Preserving the Past” interviews Stephen Walters

The other home-movie footage The Wright/Radcliffe Collection, found through Full Circle featured scenes in and around Ashbourne & Kniveton in the 1930s – this is really rare footage and is quite a big collection – over 90 reels – which is still in the process of being assessed. Our thanks go to Peter Frost who deposited this collection with MACE.

Kay Ogilvie, senior curator for Full Circle introduces the films......

The collection of films shown also included a lovely 1955 British Transport travel guide to Derbyshire, ATV footage of the controversial closure of East Mill Belper in 1986 and a small independent film made in the 1980s about climbing friends ascent of High Tor in Matlock Bath which had the audience on the edge of their seats!