Welcome to the Projected Picture Trust

From the 1960s onwards, Picture Palaces were being boarded up, turned into bingo halls, split into multiscreens or razed to the ground for redevelopment. Projection equipment was being thrown into skips or sold for scrap. It was these developments that in 1978 led to the birth of the PPT by the then BFI Technical Officer, Charles Beddow. Convinced that much of Britain’s arts heritage would be lost forever, he successfully created a steering committee and the rest, as they say, is history.

Run by an eclectic mix of respected industry professionals and cinema enthusiasts, the trust boasts a world-class collection of cinema technology artefacts and a growing digital archive that will eventually become an accessible hub of knowledge for just about anyone interested in finding out more about this fascinating, if often overlooked, side of our much-loved business.

With an impressive portfolio of real-world expertise, ideas as grand as the films we screen and hard-working, enthusiastic volunteers, the PPT has the potential to become a world leader in the field of cinema technology preservation.

The PPT, has a base at Dean Clough Mills, Halifax where the majority of the equipment is stored and there are displays across the country. The PPT goes well beyond just collecting equipment. The trust has a huge range of working projection and sound systems and is able to provide the expertise to install and operate for events such as film festivals. Equipment can also be provided as props for film makers.

Charles Morris, managing director of Northern Morris Associated Cinemas Ltd, and lifetime member of the PPT, has received an MBE in the New Year Honours for services to cinema in the North of England. Charles has always had a passionate interest in cinemas, made his first visit to a cinema projection room at the age of nine and was working as a part time projectionist in his teens. He continued as a part time projectionist while taking up a career in engineering but in 1988, with the encouragement and participation of his wife Judy, he brought the derelict Rex Elland back to life.

In 1992 he gave up engineering and took over the Royalty Bowness. In 1996 he added the Picture House Keighley, in 1998 the Plaza Skipton, in 2005 the Cottage Road Headingley and in 2006 the Roxy Ulverston. Judy died three months ago and on receiving his award Charles said: “It is rather sad that my wife Judy, who was equally deserving of it, should have missed the announcement by just three months.”

The PPT and Charles have worked together on many occasions such as with the premier of The Railway Children Return. He has a wealth of knowledge and as Dion has said “is a real nice guy “.

The website for Northern Morris Cinemas can be found here.

The images change every few seconds. Hover over one to pause and the arrows allow you to move through the 11 images.

11 January 2026

A shot of G-Mill in the winter, looks inviting but it is bitterly cold in the basement. However, it does mean we work hard to stay warm.

I have given the Westar base a respray and it is ready for assembly and final testing before sending to Cambridge University.

Allan Foster is seen checking out the Orcon 1600 before being mounted on the afore mentioned Westar.

Richard Hawley is in the process of building a DC exciter supply as the Editola originally had an AC one.

Peter Berry and Michael Baim are busy checking and labelling films in the archive.

Finally Rob Younger has rebuilt the Cinemeccanica lamp houses for the Hyde Park Picture House and they will be tested next Tuesday before shipping to them.

22 December 2025

Here we have the return of our VistaVision Kalee from Turkey. Showing myself and Symon Culpan and then Rob Younger

20 December 2025

These pictures show Peter Berry fitting the hardware to the resprayed GK21 top box and the second one of it mounted back on the machine.

The exciter is one from a Universal Base which I have adapted to fit in the Editola Richard Hawley is working on. The old one was an earlier modification and didn't line up with the optical slit.

Richard is now going to fit a rectifier and smoothing capacitors since the supply at the moment is raw AC.

Allan Foster and Symon Culpan are fitting a consumer unit to the Cambridge machine so that both the Westar motor and 1600 Orcon lamp house are individually fused.   

18 November 2025

Richard was continuing with the Editola and having changed all the capacitors in the amplifier began testing it. I have removed the sound optics and will be giving it a good clean over the next few days. Peter is continuing with the Cambridge Westar and I have made a plate to take the Dolby Digital reader. The reader has had to be fitted on the front as there is a height restriction in the projection room. Putting it on the plate raised the top spool arm by just 10mm. 

16 November 2025

We were at the Blackpool Film Collectors’ Convention where we sold lots of Super 8 and 16mm films. If we had saved them any longer they would have become too poor to run. So it was decided to move them on and let other enthusiasts enjoy them. They were mostly feature films we seldom screen at Halifax as short films are more suitable for most of our activities. We also sold quite a few duplicate books such as Complete Projectionist and the like. All in all a good and very busy event. The images show us at a pre-show relaxation meeting and our stand. We took a couple of pounds short of £1500, not bad for a day’s work. 

7 October 2025

These shots are of the two lots of equipment Steve Rowley delivered on Saturday 4 October and the following pictures are what we found and partially assembled on Tuesday 7 October. A couple of machines (the 9.5mm and the green 35mm have yet to be identified). The Butchers Empire Model 1 had no arc mechanism and we managed to find one in our stores that fitted. Although it is mounted on a base we will have to create a stand for it. The Ross arc (I am reliably informed) originally came in the bare metal finish. We fitted it on a pedestal along with an old RCA P3 sound head and an early Ross projector. This makes  a very nice period machine although missing an adaptor gear for the Ross and spool boxes.

9.5 Mystery

9.5 Specto

16 Agfa

Empire No1

Empire

Gaumont

Not sure

Pallet

Ross arc

Truck

27 September 2025

Fig 1 shows spool boxes off our 21 set which had the paint peeling badly. Peter sanded it all off and I sprayed it. It is one of the early ones and consequently mustard in colour and not hammer finish. Fig 2 shows Allan making a bracket to fit a limelight into a Hahn lamphouse which had nothing inside and will go on the back of our Tyler. In fig 3 Peter can be seen fitting the fire traps and viewing glasses onto the Tyler spoolboxes which were resprayed last week. Finally, in fig 4, Richard is seen starting to replace all the old capacitors on the Editola amplifier that he has been working on these last few weeks getting the film transport mechanism refurbished.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

16 September​ 2025

An Evening of Nostalgia, organised by  Sue Hanson of Halifax Heritage Tours was held at Crossley Gallery on Tuesday 16 September and was the second such event we have done with them. The turnout was around 50. We screened rare films of the ever-changing face of Halifax over the last century. 

The first photo shows the image on the screen at the start of evening. The second one is a shot of the audience at the end.

14 September 2025

Basically Richard (Fig 1) has continued his restoration of the Editola. In the foreground to the right is a silent Tyler which Peter is restoring followed by the spool boxes being resprayed (Figs 2 & 3). Then the Eiki (Fig 4) which Allan is repairing and is at present waiting for a new xenon bulb to be delivered. Alex and I met at Cambridge to look over some equipment which may become available to us along with a load of other film equipment (Fig 5, 6 &7). They are an old portable Simplex, a 16mm Studio machine, and another model of an Eiki with a xenon and integral electronic rectifier. Much lighter than our EX1500 but same size lamp. Finally Peter running through the 16mm part of the programme for An Evening of Halifax Nostalgia at Crossley Gallery on Tuesday 16 September (see below).

Meet our team

Charles Beddow II
President

Thinking of becoming a member?

The Projected Picture Trust would love to welcome you as a new member.

As a member you would be free to participate in the activities of the trust in any way that suits your time and skills and meet others with similar interests. Or you can just have the satisfaction of knowing you are aiding the trust in its efforts to preserve the magic of cinema.

Members can participate in outings and visits, including those organised by the Cinema Theatre Association, access the Member zone on this website and have their say at the annual general meeting. They receive a copy of our magazine, Rewind, every three months and have access, via the Member zone of this website, to an archive of around twenty years of Rewind.

Rates

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Reference library

The PPT Reference library contains well over 800 scanned documents consisting of sales brochures, service and operating manuals and information sheets.

Even if you are not looking for specific information, the library gives a stunning view of what was the vastness of the cinema industry and the many fields it encompassed.