Inside knowledge of Oakengates' disappeared cinema
Jean Woolley can't be sure that a photo we used in Pictures From The Past showed the interior of the local cinema she knew so well, but nevertheless it brought back plenty of memories.
We thought the picture, from the collection of the late cinema historian Fred Brown, might show the inside of the long-disappeared Grosvenor Cinema in Oakengates.
And Oakengates-born Mrs Woolley thinks we might be right.
"I lived at the Duke of York in Oakengates, which was kept by my parents, and it was a short walk from there to where the Grosvenor was. My sister and I used to go there quite regularly, to the matinees on Saturday afternoons usually," said Mrs Woolley, who still lives in Oakengates and whose maiden name is Procter.
"My sister, Marjorie, lives in Australia now. I wouldn't say that I recognise it as the Grosvenor, but I thought it could well be.
"It was quite a nice cinema. It was owned by Mr Wright. We used to go through the front and down two aisles. I've got a feeling that there were two sets of double seats at the side right near the corner, probably for courting couples.
"There was a fairground at the back that belonged to Pat Collins. The fair was not there all the time. We used to call it The Wakes.
"I was born in 1927 and I lived at the Duke of York until 1951."
The Grosvenor was Oakengates' cinema for many years, showing films from at least 1933, but closed on April 1, 1967, and the building was demolished in January 1975.
