A CINEMA is to be dismantled brick-by-brick and moved to a new home as a museum piece.

The former Grand Electric Cinema in Ryhope is to be rebuilt at Beamish as the centrepiece of the museum’s new 1950s town.

The pit village picture house was built in 1912, screening silent black and white movies, and thrived through the arrival of talkies, colour and the golden years of Hollywood.

But in the 1960s it was converted to a bingo hall and then used for storage, before owners Angela and Gary Hepple, from Seaham, offered to donate it to Beamish, where it will transported and used to screen films, newsreels and period adverts.

The red-brick building is now empty and will be furnished with up to 600 cinema seats from the former Palladium Cinema in Claypath, Durham, which closed in 1976, donated by property company Student Castle and a 1930s projector collected from Durham University.

It was officially handed over to Beamish today, with museum staff then beginning the painstaking task of dismantling it and then rebuilding it on site.

Museum director Richard Evans said: “We’re absolutely delighted to announce that this fantastic building, which tells a fascinating story about the community in Ryhope, will be part of our Remaking Beamish project.

“We’re very grateful to Angela and Gary for donating the wonderful cinema building”.

Angela and Gary, owners of Garage on the Green, in Ryhope, said: “We are delighted that the cinema will be brought back to life by Beamish Museum, where the people of Ryhope will be able to reminisce with their families during visits to Beamish."

Beamish staff say they keen to hear people’s memories of the cinema in Ryhope, particularly anyone who used to work there.

Museum staff will be at Ryhope Carnival from 11am to 4pm on Saturday (aug 1) in Ryhope Recreation Park, for anyone who wishes to speak to them.

The cinema will take its place in the museum’s 1950s town alongside a number of other buildings including replicas of artist Norman Cornish’s house in Spennymoor, County Durham; John’s Cafe from Wingate, County Durham and a 1950s semi-detached house from Red House in Sunderland.