Memories of Wotton Picture House

The first auditorium was upstairs in the old banqueting hall of the Crown Hotel, which closed in 1911. An advert in the local press of April, 1914, runs like this: 'Wotton-under-Edge Electric Picture House - The programme this week has been exceptionally good, such films as 'When the earth trembled' and 'The Trap' proving of great interest. Included among the popular comic features were 'Bunny's suicide' and 'Tweedledum's Motor Car', two items that gave immense satisfaction. The chief attractions next week will be the film showing today's Cup Final at the Crystal Palace between Burnley and Liverpool. This great feature will be shown for the first time on Thursday next.'

By 1920 the cinema was unable to cope with the number of people wanting to see the pictures. So the decision was made to build a new auditorium to hold more people.

Several old buildings and workshops were demolished and a new hall was built with a good incline on the floor to give a good view of the screen. It seated 220 people. This new hall opened in 1921.

Those far-off days held many memories. My own parents often recalled their courting days watching Pearl White in the Perils of Pauline. I well remember a couple telling me of when they got married. They were married at St Mary's, had a feast and went to the Picture House in the evening to see a film called 'Ramona'. That was their honeymoon! Of course during all this time the piano and other man made sound effects accompanied the films.

Then in July, 1931, the Talkies came to Wotton. The first film was, of course, the Jazz Singer with Al Jolson. The place was packed day after day. It was a time of great excitement. Coaches of people came over from Dursley to see and hear. It was another year before Dursley had talkies in their lovely Victoria Hall.

My earliest memories of going to the Picture House was to see Shirley Temple. I still remember the usherette who came round in the interval with her tray of sweets and chocolates with the little light on the back of the tray. She is still with us today. I remember seeing Gracie Fields. She sang 'Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye'

It was about 1941 when I started going to the pictures twice a week. My Mum used to say: 'I know where you are then'. Of course, the war was on and there was no street lights - every thing was pitch black. The pictures brought some light and excitement into our lives.

It was at this time my passion for the cinema began. While queuing for the pictures Mrs Coe asked me if I would run an errand for her to the post office. From then on I was the errand boy.

I regularly went to the post office with £40-£50 to get Customs and Excise Entertainment Stamps to stick onto the admission tickets. For me it was a fortune to handle. The seat prices were 6d, 9d, 1s 1s 9d and 2s 3d. And these prices held until the closure in 1960.

I have mountains of memories of films from those early years. George Formby, Old Mother Riley, Cowboys, Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Hopalong Cassidy come to mind. Rita Hayworth was my favourite pin up. Mrs Coe often allowed us to see Cert 'A' films without an adult - on many occasions.

In those days the 6d seats were wooden chairs: boys on one side, girls on another and never the twain should meet. If there was too much talking or some disturbance, Mrs Coe would put the lights on and would not put them out until there was near silence. Meanwhile the film would still be running! Discipline was the order of the day. . Later on I helped to show people to their seats and sometimes acted as cashier. As art was my best subject at school, I sometimes used to make posters for the films. The very fist one was for the film 'The White Cliffs of Dover'.

I do remember seeing a film called 'The Tower of Terror'. I gave me a nightmare. It was about a lighthouse keeper. A young couple got shipwrecked on the rock. It turned out to be a terrifying experience for them - and for me.

Films often broke down and there was much stamping of feet on the wooden floor. There was no carpet in those days. This was also the days of the old nitrate highly inflammable film which sometimes caught fire from the heat of the arc lights on the projectors.

Mr Coe was chief projectionist and he was quite deaf so he could not hear if the sound was to high or too low. That was left to the young assistant. In those days the projection room was entered by climbing a vertical ladder. You needed to be fit. The film rewind room was below.

The cinema had its own power supply. An old Petter engine drove the generator. I often helped to pull the huge belt to get the engine to start. There was an alternative engine driven by gas. This was often used when a colour film was showing. The trouble was the rest of Market Street had hardly any gas for their lights!

Colour films were generally shown at holiday times. I do remember some. The Thief of Bagdad, Belle Star, Errol Flynn in the Adventures of Robin Hood.

During the years of 1943 and 1944 many American soldiers and their girl friends used to come to the pictures. They always had the best seats. Many of the films they must have seen years ago in the States but they were not interested in the films!

In April, 1947, being past retirement age, Mr and Mrs Coe put the whole property up for sale after 34 years in the business. At that time Mrs Coe recalled that Mrs Bennett, of Westfields, had been a constant picture-goer for the whole of their 34 years. She was still one of the first in the queue.

The agents for the sale was Messrs Davis, Champion and Payne. The purchaser was Mr C M Jenner, a retired farmer, of Coombe Road. His daughter, Vera, and son-in-law, Reginald Grimshaw, took over the running of the cinema and were there until 1960. They eventually made many changes and improvements. A new sound system, replaced the Kaylee 8 projectors with Kaylee 12s, new lighting system, converted to mains electricity supply for projection equipment and much much more. I still have five of the original torch globes of the 1920s. These times were the heyday of cinema going. Often people had to be turned away. By about 1948 I too graduated to the position of a projectionist.

Wotton, because of its independence from a circuit, could not show films before the nearby Odeon and ABC cinemas. They had a monopoly. The soonest Wotton could show a film was four weeks after. It could not even advertise that it was about to come. The other drawback was that the films could be so expensive to hire.

For all that the Grimshaws coped very well with this and we had a good selection from both circuits. I was there as projectionist with Reg Grimshaw for his last screening. It was a sad night after 47 years of continuous entertainment at Wonton Picture House.

Just after this a group of people formed Wotton Film Society. In 1962 I was asked if it would be possible to use the cinema and its equipment to show 35mm films. I happened to meet an ex-projectionist from the Victoria Cinema and we teamed up to show the films. The first one was Romeo and Juliet.

Then we decided to re-open the cinema on a commercial basis. After a great clean-up and redecoration we opened to great publicity in October, 1963. Sadly I had to leave after a few months but my partner continued for some 18 months.

Alan Mason, from Berkeley Cinema, also ran it for a while and when he left he took the projection equipment with him. Then in 1991, after being used as a bingo hall, Andy and Jess came along and gave it a new lease of life. And you know the rest.

With cinema-going at its highest for many years, may Wotton Electric Picture House be resurrected.

Pictured: Michael Chappell as projectionist in the 1950s - the projector can be seen at Wotton Heritage Centre