A LOCAL 'community cinema' has screened its first film.

About 50 volunteers from Sherburn & Villages library attended the premiere with a difference at Sherburn-in-Elmet's new community centre, The Old Girls' School, earlier this month.

They were celebrating their success in keeping the library, which had been threatened with closure, open for the past 18 months.

Leaders of Sherburn-in-Elmet Community Trust, who manage both the library and this new centre, organised uniformed usherettes to attend the screening, to remind older audience members of cinema visits in years gone by.

Usherettes Allyson Chambers, chair of the Friends of the Old Girls' School, and the Trust's community development manager, Anne-Marie Oldroyd, even provided ice creams from traditional trays.

Chairman Paul Doherty said: "Our volunteers add a lot of value to their local community and we felt that a special community cinema event in this historic building was a great way to recognise the contribution they make."

The inaugural film shown, presented in association with charity Selby Carers' Resource - which supports unpaid carers in the area - was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is set in the Channel Islands during the Second World War.

Films will be shown on the second Friday of each month. The next one, romcom Finding Your Feet, is at 7pm on Friday, November 9. Tickets cost £4 from the library or The Old Girls' School.