A COMMUNITY worker hopes to shed some light on a 1950s film spool thought to contain historic footage of the Queen.

Richard Weeks, 47, is eager to discover what treasures the decades-old reel contains after learning of nostalgia enthusiast Gavin Knight’s bid to solve the mystery.

Gavin bought the old Kodak spool at a car boot sale and was intrigued when he spotted that it came with a letter sent from a Barrhead address in 1965.

His interest grew after he noticed the words ‘Queen at Inchinnan’ written on the lid.

It’s thought the film shows Her Majesty paying a visit to the India of Inchinnan tyre factory in 1956, accompanied by Prince Philip.

However, 44-year-old Gavin is unable to view the footage as specialist equipment is needed.

He asked for help to find out more about the spool’s history, prompting Richard to come forward.

Richard runs the Paisley Camcorder Club, which is based at Paisley Museum and turns old film reels into digital footage.

The club is currently running a project aimed at capturing local culture, titled The Ties That Bind Us.

“One of the camera club people rang me up and said I’d be interested in this story,” Richard said.

“I’m waiting on Gavin to send me the film and, hopefully, we’ll get that sorted soon.

“One of the things we do through the camcorder club is transfer people’s 8mm films to digital.

“The Ties That Bind Us project is about the ways in which local film-makers have captured Scottish culture and local culture, perhaps for personal histories.

“We’re attaching people’s oral histories to the films where possible.”

The club has previously run projects at Renfrew Town Hall, as well as at churches and care homes in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire.

And Richard is hopeful he can unlock the mysteries of Gavin’s old spool.

Gavin said: “I purchased it at a car boot sale in Polmadie. It was sitting on top of a pile of books.

“The guy selling it had never even opened the film can and couldn’t tell me anything about it.

“Generally, I pick up any retro gaming equipment I can find for my son, but the spool of film intrigued me due to what was written on the can’s lid and the accompanying letter.

“The letter inside the can of film is addressed to ‘Ray’ and is from ‘Uncle Jimmy’. The address the spool was sent from was 101 Aurs Road, Barrhead, dated June 25,1965.

“The film, however, is from the 1950s. Unfortunately, I don’t own any equipment capable of handling this type of film.

“It would be interesting to reunite any living family members with the footage for sentimental reasons, plus seek their permission to log it with archives to ensure rare footage is made available to the public.”

If you have any old photos or film footage of Renfrewshire or East Renfrewshire that you would like to share with our readers, send an email to jonathon.reilly@newsquest.co.uk.