AN amateur cine film, which lay hidden in a biscuit tin for more than 60 years, has been found to contain unique footage of the excavation of the stone circles led by Alexander Keiller in the 1930s.

For the first time since the outbreak of war in 1939, the film was shown to a local audience in Avebury.

As well as rare moving shots of Keiller supervising the excavation and restoration of the stones, the fragile celluloid film shows the village as it was more than 60 years ago.

It was taken before cottages and buildings were torn down as part of a controversial bid to clear the circle of all trace of modern habitation.

The 9.5mm film was originally taken by the late Percy Lawes, whose father Harry was landlord of the Red Lion for many years. While the film was originally seen by some villagers, it has never been seen before by archaeologists or other academics.

Inquiries have revealed that the film was shown, along with others, to entertain children from the village before the Second World War, and was screened in a room at the Red Lion.

More than 50 years ago Mr Lawes gave the spools of film to a local man, who does not wish to be named. He kept them in a biscuit tin in the bottom of his wardrobe, where they remained for half a century.

Local historian and writer Brian Edwards heard of the existence of the old film when he visited the Avebury in Old Photographs exhibition during the village's Millennium fair in July.

He said: "The 9.5mm film, which includes footage of Alexander Keiller in his attempt to reconstruct the great Neolithic complex during the 1930s, surfaced when Avebury residents decided to organise an exhibition of old photographs as part of the village's Millennium celebrations."

Mr Edwards, a mature student who is studying for his PhD, said: "Realising the unique importance of such footage I arranged to have the film cleaned and mastered on to video tape."

But he then discovered it is virtually impossible to find anyone now with a projector suitable for the old 9.5mm cine film. He said: "The owner confided to a friend he despaired of ever seeing the footage they had last seen as children."

Mr Edwards was eventually referred to Eric Powell in Calne. Mr Powell, who is a cine film enthusiast, had the necessary equipment to enable the film to be recorded on video tape for posterity.

For the first time in more than five decades the five-minute film was shown again on Monday at the Red Lion.

Among the audience were some of the original children, now pensioners, who saw it in the late 1930s.

The film contains footage taken from the top of the tower of St James' Church and from the gardens of Avebury Manor.

Mr Edwards said: "Among the outstanding features are the number of cottages and other buildings subsequently demolished as English Heritage took control of the village.

"Also captured on the film are the new houses in the nearby hamlet of Avebury Trusloe which were built on the site of the Beckhampton stone avenue, rediscovered in 1969."

Copies of the video are to be made available at the Wiltshire Record Office.

The film will be shown again in the social centre on Saturday and Sunday between noon and 6pm. The exhibition of old photographs of the village will also be staged again by popular demand.

Mr Edwards, a student at the University of the West of England in Bristol, has written a chapter called Avebury, The Making of the English Heritage Landscape in the recently published Seeing History: Public History in Britain Now which is published by Francis Boutle, at £9.99.

Mr Edwards would like to hear from anyone with photographs or film of Alexander Keiler's digs. Contact him via the Gazette at 14 Market Place, Devizes, SN10 1HT.