On discovering the Picturedrome in Holmfirth and a thriving cinema industry

We were up in Holmfirth recently visiting the winery but that is a story for another time.  

It was while we were there that I came across the Picturedrome, opened in 1912 and in its day offering films and variety.  Now it looks as if it has been much mucked about with over the last hundred years but something of its former grandeur is still there.

It is a big enough to seat a couple of hundred people, has a double set of doors, with a veranda above it and must have made you feel special each time you went to watch that magic of light and moving pictures played out in the dark.

It reminded me of many similar old picture houses I have known but tended to ignore because they had long since passed into other use, closed by the grander cinemas that opened in the 1920s and 30s.
I guess in its time there would not have been many other buildings of its size in the Holmfirth. There was a blue plaque giving a few details but nothing about the enterprising individual or individuals who saw the potential those films as entertainment were going to have.

But then perhaps I should not have been surprised at the opening of a cinema in Holmfirth given that it was a centre of film making in the years either side of the 20th century.  It was the company of Bamforth Ltd capitalising on their magic lantern business which from 1898 made films in this tiny west Yorkshire town.  Between 1898-1900 they made 14 and in the two years 1913-1915 turned out 120 before switching production to London.

Nor were they alone, for across the country and especially here in Manchester there were film companies knocking out films in the years before and after the Great War.  Some survived well into the 2Oth century, which is a neat way of mentioning the History Group again and C.P. Lee who spoke to us about our own cinematic history.

Now, I have a very simple rule when someone has told a story better than I can the best thing to do is point you in their direction, so anyone wanting to know more about should visit
http://www.manchesterfilmhistory.info/ and http://www.itsahotun.com/

But having said that you might also want to read about our own palaces of fun and cinematic magic at http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Chorlton%20cinemas

Picture; from the collection of Andrew Simpson