Village life from the 1950s will be revealed at screening of cine films

Businessman Frank Dale, from the Shropshire border between Ludlow and Leominster, shot an archive of cine film in the 1950s, some of which will be shown at a Memories on Film screening at Cawley Hall in the village of Eye this weekend.

The little village near the south Shropshire border has a long-standing interest in archive film, having undertaken extensive research over the years into the film shot by Mr Dale.

North Herefordshire Archive Film Group discovered 111 reels – about 11 miles of film – filmed by Mr Dale and kept intact by his daughter Diana Smith.

The group has now teamed up with Flicks in the Sticks' The Bigger Picture Archive Film Project to put together an evening of films highlighting some of the key events in the locality in the 1950s and 1960s.

Films featured include the sale of Stagbatch Farm, where the whole farming community turned up after discovering owner Lewis Holland was worth a fortune, if only to see what the grand total would be when the last of his effects went under the hammer.

There is also footage of the sale of Hereford cattle at The Haven and a short film Mrs Lettice Sandford Making Corn Dollies, showing the lady who lived at Eye Manor and helped renew an interest in corn dolly making. One film known to have been made but thought to have been lost forever was a recording of the last passenger journey on the Kington to Leominster railway in 1955, only recently discovered by Frank's grandson Steven Dale in the company office, together with his grandfather's original cine camera.

The Last Passenger Train short will complete the screening, which will start at 7.30pm on Sunday.

Over the past year, Flicks in the Sticks has been collecting film from national and private collections for The Bigger Picture Archive throughout Shropshire, Herefordshire, and Mid Wales, and has unearthed some gems, such as footage of pioneer female aviator Amy Johnson flying a glider on the Long Mynd in Shropshire in the 1930s, and the near-legendary Indian elephant that lived in Bishop's Castle in the 1940s after being left behind by a travelling circus.

Ian Kerry, director of Flicks in the Sticks, said: "The response we have received from the sell-out screenings we have held is testimony to the importance and value of these films and their memories to local communities."

Tickets for Frank Dale's archive screening are £6 and include food served from 6.30pm. They are available by calling 01568 615836.