A CINEMA buff has labelled the pulling down of Otley's Beech Hill Cinema a disgrace.

Bill Pryor recently travelled to Otley from his home in North Devon to visit the old cinema - only to find that it had been pulled down in January.

"The more I think about it, the more it makes me very angry," he said. "All over the country, cinemas with a lot less population than Otley, such as Thirsk and Wetherby, have been saved.

In his home town the cinema fanatic helped to form a cinema group three years ago in a bid to open a new 100-seat cinema in the town.

Mr Pryor said that North Devon District Council agreed to provide the building free of charge and will help more by putting in toilets, a projection room and a ticket office, with the group raising funds to refurbish the cinema by inviting townsfolk to sponsor a seat.

"In our town of Lynton, we only have a population of around 1,800 people - how many do you have in Otley? Thousands more! I can't believe that it is closed - it's a disgrace!"

In Lynton the cinema group intends to show up to date releases and also tourist films - something which Otley folk should have thought about.

"The whole community is behind our 100 seat cinema, I'm sure a town the size of Otley could and should be able to support a 300-seater at least," he added.

"Knocking down Beech Hill means Otley has lost part of its heritage and I'm very sad."

Mr Pryor is now asking for more information about the Beech Hill.

He wants to know when it changed its name from Westgate and also wants to know about the Picture House in Kirkgate

and what happened to the

building.

He can be contacted at Lynton Railway Station, Station Hill, Lynton, North Devon.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.