Our series on the record-breaking rise of Darlington's cinemas looks at the fatal fall of the Court.

TODAY, British School Yard is a quiet back alley protected from the world by its impressive iron gates on which is wrought its name.

But nearly 70 years ago, here the first of Darlington’s purpose-built cinemas came to a tragic end, taking with it a 76-year-old widow who lived in a cottage in the yard.

At 3am on August 15, 1947, when members of the Darlington fire brigade arrived on Skinnergate, they discovered the Court Kinema to be so well ablaze that it couldn’t be saved and so, with the help of reinforcements from Stockton and Middlesbrough, they concentrated on rescuing the buildings around the stricken cinema, including the terrace of cottages in the neighbouring British School Yard.

The residents, including Mrs Margaret Iceton in No 3, were hurriedly ushered out in their nightclothes.

“Mrs Iceton said that she would have to go back for her shoes, and while she was in the house, the roof gave way, and she was buried,” said that evening’s Northern Despatch. “Police Sgt W Oliver, who had accompanied her, avoided most of the debris, and working with other police officers and firemen, struggled for two hours before Mrs Iceton’s body was extricated.”

The back end of the cinema had collapsed, raining rubble on the unfortunate lady’s house. Fireman J Bowerbank was inside the cinema near the stage at that moment, and was showered in masonry. He, though, suffered minor injuries, unlike Mrs Iceton who never recovered consciousness.

It was a cruel blow to the Court Kinema, as well. It had opened on February 12, 1913, the third purpose-built cinema in the town as the silver screen craze caught hold. It could seat 1,250 people, but it never reopened. It’s owners, the Gaumont British Picture Organisation, reckoned the blaze had done £60,000-worth of damage.

“After one of the biggest fires that has ever occurred in Darlington, the cinema is now a total wreck,” said the Despatch. “Only the front of the building remains intact.”

The front of the building is still intact. The oriel window that was once above its box office is now above the Speedy Pepper takeaway. And through the iron gates into British School Yard, you can still make out the bricked-up windows and doorways of the cottages in which Mrs Iceton met her death.