Durham Memories - No scrambling for seats in era of the silver screen.

(From The Northern Echo)

Byline: David Simpson

In the fifth part of his look at the development of entertainment in Durham, David Simpson recalls the heyday of the city's cinemas

Cinemas in Durham were not confined to the city centre and many of the neighbouring villages had their own "picture houses".

Langley Moor, Meadowfield, Wheatley Hill, Bowburn, Langley Park, Esh Winning, Sacriston and Coxhoe all had at least one cinema each. In fact, some villages had as many as three.

The village cinemas often had different licensing arrangements to those in the city. For many years, Sunday showings were banned in the city but not in the surrounding villages, so a visit to an out-of-town cinema became common practice for the city's residents on the Sabbath.

On …