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Get a glimpse of life in wartime Stockport

Stewart Rigby
22/11/2006

SIXTY-five years ago, in the depths of the Second World War, the Stockport Express mounted a powerful campaign to open cinemas and public spaces on Sundays so those involved in the war effort could enjoy the same freedoms as those in countless other towns and cities of the UK.

A short film - shot mostly in Stockport centre and entitled "Do You Want Sunday Cinema and Games?" - was made to reinforce the paper's fight for Sunday observance regulations to be relaxed to fit war conditions. (CLICK HERE to see the video)

In co-operation with the North West Film Archive we have made the four-minute, 49-second black and white film available for viewing on our website (see below). Complete with its own commentary it shows evocative scenes of 1941 town centre Stockport.

There are moving pictures of Mersey Square with trams and single-deck buses, with Boots Chemist on the corner of Princes Street and the former fire station standing at what is now the entrance to Merseyway Shopping Centre. There's the Plaza Theatre (ironically saved by a recent Stockport Express campaign), town centre cinemas, people walking up and down Wellington Road South ("perambulating" as the commentary describes it).

"Why should Stockport be denied the facilities of towns and cities?", begs the commentary.

There are shots of male and female wartime factory and munitions workers making their way on public transport from Stockport to join the queues outside the Odeon Cinema on Oxford Street, Manchester, where Sunday opening was allowed.

Click on the link below to see the film in full - and click on 'Submit your comments' below to tell us what you think of it.

• Our thanks to the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University - www.nwfa.mmu.ac.uk