ITS climate-controlled vaults contain 15million ft of film and 50,000 titles that between them bear witness to the history and culture of these northern lands.

And now the North-East Film Archives Service is on something of a road tour – taking folk down memory lane. On Thursday evening, it was Hexham’s turn.

Archive manager Graham Relton took the opportunity to issue something of a plea: “As a charity, we are dedicated not only to finding and preserving old film, but also showing it to the wider public.

“We are always searching for more, so if you have lofts or sheds containing boxes of old, family cine film, we’d be keen to take a look.

“People ask ‘why would you be interested in our family stuff?’ but film footage like that also reflects the social history of the region.”

The archive service always observes copyright or any sensibilities over the showing of donated materials, he added

And with that, the Queen’s Hall audience was given a taste of just why the old film footage is cherished.

Newly digitised as part of the British Film Institute’s Britain on Film project, the Hexham extracts included a walk with writer Hunter Davies along the Roman Wall; a promotional ‘move to Northumberland today’ film that followed the southern Randall family as they relocated to Humshaugh; a nostalgic travelogue, called A Kind of Heaven, narrated by Dame Flora Robson, and a 1970s Tyne Tees documentary, The Diary of a Country Editor, that went behind the scenes at the Hexham Courant.

The show ended with the Channel 4 documentary that reflected on the musical heritage that ‘made’ Wark Northumbrian piper Kathryn Tickell.

Further information can be found at www.northeast
filmarchive.com.