The Society has been meeting face to face since September this year and in addition to the meeting on the History of Cinema described below has heard about ‘Supernatural Salisbury’ from Frogg Moody and ‘The Ownership of Stonehenge’ from Matt Pike. 

Talks planned for 2022 include:

• History of Salisbury Infirmary
• Salisbury plaques and the buildings and people they commemorate
• Architect and Antiquarian -Two nineteenth century gentlemen of Wilton
• Archaeological sites in and around the Bourne Valley by the County Archaeologist
• Wiltshire Women in the First World War
• The Suffragettes by a “Mrs Catchcold” – in costume!
• WW1 aerodrome at Yatesbury and the German POW camp
• Southampton and its surroundings in WW1

The Society does not meet in August and December.

Visitors may attend up to two meetings for a donation, before they are asked to join. The membership year commences in February and is currently £13. The Society, founded in 1948, has an extensive and well documented archive collection, which is available to members.

For more information, please contact the Secretary Maureen Atkinson on 01980 611311 or at maureenatkinson16@gmail.com

Notes from a lecture by Jim Slater on “the history of cinema with Wiltshire in mind” delivered on 16th September 2021 in the Glebe Hall, Winterbourne Earls.

Albany Ward, a cinema pioneer, started his own business as a projectionist in 1898 at the age of 19, taking films to venues around the country. His head office was in Salisbury. With the advent of WW1 he realised that the thousands of soldiers on Salisbury Plain would need entertaining and offered his services to the War Department. He opened The Palace at Codford within days of war being declared. He then opened cinemas at all local camps. These were well equipped, heated and comfortable – unlike soldiers’ quarters. He also ran three film theatres in Salisbury: New Theatre in Castle Street; The Picture House in Fisherton Street; The Palace in Endless Street. 

The New Theatre closed in 1932 and Woolley & Wallis now occupy the site. The Picture House opened in 1916 and was a conversion of a former chapel. Albany Ward sold out to Provincial Cinematographic Theatres, who were taken over by Gaumont British Theatres in 1929. On 23rd December 1929 The Picture House showed the first talkie in Salisbury, “Perfect Alibi”. It closed in 1937, became the Playhouse Theatre in 1946, then a warehouse. Later it re-opened as the Garrison Theatre, before being demolished. Multiyork now occupies the site. 

The New Picture House in Fisherton Street opened in 1937, it became the Odeon Cinema in 1951, closed in 1961 and is now the City Hall. The Palace Theatre on the corner of Endless Street and Chipper Lane opened as the County Hall in 1989 and showed films from 1910 to 1931. In 1937 it became the Palace Garage, before being demolished. 

The Regal in Endless Street opened in 1936 with 1,600 seats. It was renamed the ABC Cinema in 1963 and was converted to a bingo hall in 1969. 

The Gaumont Palace is today’s Odeon Cinema and opened in September 1931. It was the conversion of a Tudor Gothic building, “Ye Halle of John Halle” built in 1470 as the home of John Halle, a wool merchant. The façade and outer foyer is still that of the original building, which was altered by Pugin in 1834 with a Mock Tudor Façade. The interior has retained the Tudor look, with canvas murals on the walls to suggest tapestries. It became The Odeon in 1964 and in 1972 was tripled by creating two small screens in the rear of the stalls under the circle and one large one in the former circle. In 1993 a fourth screen was added and in 1995 a fifth. Before it became a cinema the site was occupied by Watson & Company, purveyors of china and glass.

The Plaza at Amesbury was on the site of the current St Melor House surgery. It opened in 1935 with 500 seats and showed first run movies at the same time as London cinemas. It closed in 1988 and was demolished in 1993.

Maureen Atkinson