18/06/2026
Continuing our look into the history of Skiptonâs cinemas, today we turn to the life of Mark Henry Morris â a largely forgotten but important early figure in the townâs cinema story.
Mark Henry Morris was born on 7 April 1880 at Witton Park in County Durham. By 1891 he was living in the mining village of Ushaw Moor, where his father, originally from Surrey, worked as a general labourer. By 1901, Morris had entered domestic service and was working as a coachman for Dr William Currie at Riverside in Todmorden. The following year marked a new chapter in his life: he married Ruth Eccles, who worked as a florist in Todmorden. The couple settled there, and Morris began to establish himself in business. They opened a cycling shop, and from 1907 onwards he can be found regularly advertising in the Todmorden & District News for his âCentral Cycle Stores.â These adverts also highlight another strand of his work, noting that âall kinds of electrical work [are] done at the shortest notice,â
Around 1910, the Morrises moved to Skipton, though the reason for their move is not recorded; by this time, however, Morris was already considering the possibilities of showing films. According to the history page on Skiptonâs Plaza website, he had been using the Temperance Hall for occasional film shows from as early as 1910, and in the 1911 Census he described his occupation as a cinematograph manager.
In 1912, he secured the lease of the Temperance Hall and began transforming it into a more permanent picture venue, putting himself in a position to profit from what was rapidly becoming a hugely popular form of entertainment. On Monday 19 August, the hall reopened as the Gem Picture Palace. By this time, he had already made his mark on the town, with the West Yorkshire Pioneer referring to him as âthe popular proprietorâ of the Gem Picture Palace.
Despite the growing popularity of cinema, some in Skipton viewed the new entertainment with deep suspicion. A sermon by the Congregationalist minister Rev. Lewis Gaunt, reported in the West Yorkshire Pioneer on 13 December 1912, warned that âpictures had been shown in Skipton during the last few weeks to which strong objection had been taken,â and urged that it might become the âduty of all decent people to make effective protest by keeping away altogether from such entertainments, and by forbidding their children to attend.â
Morris responded the following week, defending the programmes at the Temperance Hall: âFor my own part, I absolutely refute any imputation as to the unsuitable character of the films shown in the Temperance Hall⊠Mr Gauntâs âwarningâ is entirely unnecessary in the case of any established picture concern.â He added that his guiding principle was to provide films that were âeducative, instructive, and amusing.â Gaunt, perhaps correctly, replied that âMr Morris ought to be grateful to me for the opportunity which my sermon has afforded him of getting what looks like an excellent free advertisement for his pictures,â and that Morris âhas tried to use my sermon as a weapon wherewith to strike his rivalââmeaning the Glyn Electric Palace at the Town Hall.
These exchanges offer a revealing glimpse of Morris himself: quick to defend his business in print, confident of the respectability of his enterprise, scornful of his competitors, and not above using controversy to his advantage. This impression is borne out in later newspaper reports, where he appears frequently in court. He was fined for failing to comply with cinema safety regulations, for staging unlicensed dancing and singing, and he was pursued in a series of civil claims for unpaid film hire, motor repairs, and employeesâ wages. In one smaller but telling and amusing case, he was even sued over the cost of a sculpted bust of himself. At the same time, creditors noted that his business appeared to be âin a flourishing condition,â observing that he was often seen travelling about on a motorcycle and sometimes in a motor car.
However, he supported many charitable causes in the town. He was a generous subscriber to the Skipton Voluntary Hospital, and he played a notable part in the establishment of the townâs old age pensionersâ Cinderella Fund. Every Christmas he provided a free breakfast for several hundred poor children and was, for a time, a member of the Board of Guardians, which oversaw the workhouse. The picture that emerges is of a bold, enterprising, and somewhat combative figureâambitious, highly visible in the town, and very much determined to assert his place in Skiptonâs new cinema trade and beyondâŠ
More on Skipton Cinema's and Mark Henry Morris next week...
Pictured: The Gem Picture Palace, now the Plaza as it currently stands, and Mark Henry Morris.
