Historic film showcase at the Barn Theatre, Cirencester

Eight Million Photographs, One Night on Screen

When the old Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard offices were cleared out, archivist Robert Heaven salvaged close to eight million negatives and prints spanning half a century of Cirencester life. He has spent years scanning and cataloguing them through his OldCiren project, and this closing event of Heritage Open Weekend puts a curated selection on the big screen.

Heaven writes the weekly Nostalgia page for the Standard and published Lost Cirencester in 2021. He introduces the footage and images himself, including the Queen's visit to the town alongside decades of ordinary life caught on camera: residents at work, shopfronts long gone, the streets and faces that made up postwar Cirencester.

The Barn Theatre only started running film screenings in 2020, the first cinema Cirencester had had since 2003, which makes it a fitting place to watch the town's own history play out.

Sunday 13 September 2026 · The Barn Theatre, Beeches Road, Cirencester GL7 1BN · Starts 7:30pm