FADED celluloid images flickering across a silver screen recently brought back — fleetingly — memories of a golden age of cinema in the Tamar Valley.

The derelict St Andrew's Hall on Church Street which once flourished as Calstock's picture house has recently been renovated.

But before it was sold on as an up-market home, developer George Dunkin threw open the doors to once again welcome the very villagers who had last fidgeted expectantly in its uncomfortable chairs more than 50 years before.

Seventeen people turned out at the hall for the last picture show, including Dave Mitchell, who, the youngest there at sixty-something, used to watch the films as a small boy, according to projectionist Arthur Rowse.

For 74-year-old Arthur, it was the revival of a role he had filled for a large part of his life; from that first magic moment as a callow youth watching cowboys and indians, to the heady days when he learnt the projectionist's art, through to the dying throes of that golden age.

The seeds for the afternoon were sown during a series of brief encounters.

'I was standing talking to George Dunkin one day and I told him I used to show films there 52 years ago. He invited me to go in and have a look around,' said Arthur.

The next thing he knew villager Graham Parker had rounded up an audience and asked him if he could put on a film show.

Arthur still maintains a 16mm projector, which he says is a much simpler proposition than 35 or 70mm as it runs acetate stock and doesn't require the special fire safety considerations necessary for celluloid.

In keeping with the wartime theme of the evening, a powerboat film from 1950 — 'Hurry West' was screened followed by 'Lure of the Mountains', a skiing film from the era and an early Tom and Jerry cartoon.

'You used to be able to get feature films in 16mm, but I think they're all gone now,' said Arthur.

The colours on the few films he still has have faded badly, said Arthur, remembering that they always used to take on a sepia tint after a while.

Originally St Andrew's Hall had been a Methodist chapel before their move to what is now the Peterloo Poet's centre.

It was taken on by the local parish church — St Andrew's — in about 1910, which used it as the church hall right up until it was bought by a local builder, John Murton, in the 1980s.

It fell into disrepair because of Mr Murton's ill-health and was recently bought by Mr Dunkin for renovation.

Arthur said J H (Harry) Nicholls started renting the hall to show films in 1934 when electricity first came to Calstock.

'I was eight years old then and it used to cost us 4d then down the front.'

Arthur worked for him part-time as a youngster and went on to work full-time in 1945, when he was 19.

'Early on it was westerns and Tim McCoy — who was the John Wayne of those days.'

A lot of the films were silent — the 'talkies' came into Calstock about 1937, about ten years after the Jazz Singer, the world's first sound film.

The cinema also doubled as a dance hall after the Saturday evening screening, with the Victor Sylvester dance band sound swinging out of the gramophone until the 11 o'clock curfew which stayed in force until the late 1940s.

Films were big business for Harry and Arthur. Not only was there the cinema in Calstock, but there was an even older one in Gunnislake with an eager audience, and people all over the south west crying out for their travelling picture shows.

Gunnislake's cinema, based in the village hall, was opened by Charlie Southcott in the 1920s with a 35mm projector. This was a hand-cranked machine, since there was no electricity at the time, and the light was provided by an acetylene burner — a system that could be precarious, not to say dangerous, given the highly inflammable nature of celluloid.

By the 1940s, Gunnislake too had a 16mm projector and Arthur and his wife Gwen, who met at one of Arthur's mobile showings, used to run both the Calstock and Gunnislake cinemas simultaneously, in a sometimes rather desperate fashion.

Arthur explained: 'We had a film booked for one night. We would start off in one place with reel one, which had the shorts and the news on and in the other place with reel two, the start of the main feature.'

Either Arthur or Gwen would then dash between the villages to swap reels and the support programme would be shown at the end of the feature at the other cinema.

'We got it off to a fine art, although sometimes it was a bit nerve-wracking, but we really enjoyed it — much more so than repairing televisions!'

It was to repairing televisions and radio that Arthur turned in the early 1950s, when the popularity of cinema was waning as TV took over.

The cinema went on in Calstock for another two or three years after that before it closed down for good — the construction of the Hessary Tor transmitter brought good quality television pictures to the valley. Before that the signal came from Wales. Viewers needed a 70 foot mast in the back garden, but once spring arrived and the leaves came out on the trees, even that was not enough.

Arthur said everyone enjoyed their little trip back into the the glorious heyday of cinema.

'It's sad to think it's the last film show that will ever be shown there,' he said.