THE cinema experience is returning to Bewdley more than 50 years after the town's Garden Cinema was closed.

The new community-run cinema will hold weekly screenings of Hollywood blockbusters and art-house films from March at St George's Hall.

Cinema in the Hall has been brought about thanks to a number of grants and donations from the Bewdley Festival, Bewdley Round Table and other individuals and organisations.

The grants helped to furnish the hall and purchase modern projection and sound systems. Initial funding from Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) also helped repair the hall and fund a new extension.

A test screening of Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine will be held on Thursday at the hall and a regular programme of films, organised by a Cinema Steering Group, will be held from March.

The town's Garden Cinema was closed in 1962 and demolished in 1964. It provided three programmes a week but with the arrival of affordable televisions, audiences dwindled.

The cinema briefly fought back with more comfortable seating, interior redecoration by Stourbridge College on an Art Deco theme and showed new panoramic wide-screen films.

Roger Key, chairman of Bewdley Festival and a board member of SGH Venue Management, spoke to Geoff Goodwin, a former projectionist, who grew up with Bewdley’s former Garden Cinema at the end of his drive.

Geoff said: “It was just twenty paces from our front drive gates at Glenhurst where I was born. In drab post-war Bewdley.

"I found the opportunity to join Roy Rogers and Gene Autrey in their cowboy crusades against villains in black hats was wonderful escapism.

"The Cinema gave me and the lads from school the theme for so much of our free playtime, imitating the crusade for good over evil.

“Our elders also found that cinema-going, even with sometimes not-so-new films, encouraged meetings for courtship or just simple fan worship of the stars of the day.

"Looking back, it was a simple way of providing a focus for social gathering of Bewdley folk and those from the more rural communities in the pre-television era.”

Mr Key said: "There's been a tremendous amount of interest and a lot of support in the project."

Anyone with memories of the Garden Cinema can call the Bewdley Festival office on 01299 404808 or email admin@bewdleyfestival.org.uk.

For more information visit facebook.com/BewdleyCinema