Fig 1: Sylvia Hancock and Bentinck coalface worker, Eddie Newby, filming for The Prince of Darkness at Wingfield Manor in 1962. Photo Credit – Annesley Old Church Project

The Jayrich Film Group

The Jayrich Film Group was a 1960’s amateur dramatic group from Kirkby-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, which included local coalminers and railwaymen in its ranks. The name derived from founder members, Jack Davies (Jay) and his nephew, Richard Thorley (Rich). The latter, known as Dick, originally worked as a Fireman at Kirkby-in-Ashfield Loco Sheds, later becoming a ropeman at Annesley Colliery. The author recalls Dick being a very popular character at Annesley Colliery, sadly he passed away in June 2009, aged 69.

Fig 2: The Jayrich Film Group: (Left to Right) – Mrs D. Chappell (Acting Director), Richard Thorley (Camera Man), Jack Davies (Producer and Director), Eddie Newby (Actor – Dracula) and J. Grice (Lighting). Photo Credit – Notts Free Press.

The Group made two spoof horror films in the early 1960’s, ‘The Spawn of the Vampire’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’. Bentinck coalface worker, Eddie Newby, played Dracula in both productions. The local Notts Free Press reported;

‘A man known as Count Dracula, Prince of Darkness, is working on a coalface at a Nottinghamshire colliery. But he is just Eddie to his workmates and they need no sharpened pit props to ward him off. For the vampire at Bentinck Colliery is 35 year old Eddie Newby from Kirkby-in-Ashfield’.

A standing joke at the pit at the time was that Eddie got the role of Dracula because he didn’t need any make-up!

Fig 3: Bentinck Colliery where Eddie Newby worked on the coalface. Photo – MuBu Miner collection

The Spawn of the Vampire

The Spawn of the Vampire was written and directed by Jack Davis and featured Eddie Newby as Dracula, with Jack playing the Detective, Andrew Lars and also the role of the drunk. Folk singer / songwriter, Dave Goulder, a Kirkby railwayman at the time, played the character Wesley Green and also did the audio.

Video 1 – Spawn of the Vampire footage with voiceover (30mins 13 secs).

The Prince of Darkness

A second spoof Dracula film, Prince of Darkness, was made in 1962. It was this film which brought the Jayrich Group to the attention of a wider audience.

Fig 5: Still from Prince of Darkness footage – the flogging scene in Kirkby Quarries.

At a filming session for Prince of Darkness the local press reported on some suspected unusual activity taking place down Kirkby Quarries;

‘…Visitors (to the Quarries) must have thought their eyes were playing them tricks for the scene of a medieval horror was being enacted…Peasants were forced to drag large logs, a man was whipped and hanged, and altogether the scene was a spectacle of sadistic cruelty’

Video 2 – Prince of Darkness footage with voiceover (31 minutes). The flogging and hanging scene in Kirkby Quarries is from 1min 50 secs to 5 mins 20 secs.

NCB Mining Review

The National Coal Board (NCB) Film Crew Unit made a short mini documentary about the Jayrich Film Group making, ‘Prince of Darkness’. It featured in Mining Review, 16th Year, No.1, September 1962. In the British Film Institute (BFI) database of the Mining Review films, it is titled as ‘Prince of Darkness – The Jayrich Film Society of Mansfield complete their second horror film’. It was shown in cinemas all over Britain.

Fig 6: NCB Mining Review Films at East Midlands Cinemas in late April 1952. Source – Nottingham Area NUM Minutes, 1952.

Mining Review films were shown at cinemas in coalfield regions in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, in effect they were public information films for the coalmining industry. Each monthly review featured a series of short films on all manner of subjects including mechanisation, mining technology, training, recruitment, pastimes, sport, mining folklore and the arts etc.

The BFI have the copyright for the films and in 2009 produced a two set DVD, ‘Portrait of a Miner’, which includes a selection of Mining Review films from the late 1940’s to the early 1980’s. The last Mining Review was made in 1983 and the NCB Film Crew Unit was wound up in April 1984.

Fig 7: The Regent Cinema, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, in the 1930’s. Photo Credit – Kirkby Heritage Centre

The two horror films were shown locally to various community groups including the Kirkby Film Society and also at Annesley Hall to Col. J.N. Chaworth- Musters and family members.

‘Prince of Darkness’ was screened at the Regent Cinema, Kirkby-in-Ashfield (then called the Essoldo) from 30th September 1962 for four days prior to the main film, ‘Play It Cool’, which featured early 1960’s pop stars, Billy Fury and Helen Shapiro. More details about the history of the Regent Cinema can be found in Trevor Lee’s booklet, ‘The Regent Cinema, Kirkby-in-Ashfield 1930-2004: A Selection of Papers Tracing the History of the Regent’ and on Roger Drew’s website about Kirkby-in-Ashfield https://drewfamily.uk/2023/10/18/the-regent/

Fig 8: Filming for The Annesley Vampire at Annesley Old Church in 2014. Photo – David Amos

The Annesley Vampire

Luckily, original 8mm footage from the two early 1960’s horror films survived, being stored in Eddie Newby’s loft. In 2013 this was digitalised by the Media Archive for Central England (MACE) as part of their Full Circle community film project. Unfortunately no soundtrack for the two horror films survives.

In 2014 a new short film about the Jayrich Film Group, using both new and original footage, was made as part of the Lottery Heritage funded Annesley Old Church Project (2011-2014). The Annesley Vampire was written and directed by local film enthusiast, Mike Pattison, and told the story of the Jayrich Group.

Fig 9: Old and new Dracula’s! Left – Eddie Newby, the original Dracula in the two 1960’s horror films and Mark Watson who played Eddies role as Dracula in the 2014 production, The Annesley Vampire. Photo – David Amos

Eddie Newby, then aged 86, featured in the new film. He was one of the last living members of the Jayrich group and was astonished that so much interest in the Jayrich Group and the two horror films was resurrected fifty years after they were first made. His two sons, Geoff and Lee, were also coalminers who worked at Bentinck Colliery, which later became Annesley-Bentinck Colliery.

Fig 10: Filming for The Annesley Vampire at Annesley All Saints Church Hall in 2014. Photo – David Amos

Filming for the Annesley Vampire was done locally on location at Annesley All Saints Church Hall, Bestwood Winding Engine House and Country Park, Ilkeston Scala Cinema, Codnor Castle and at Eddie Newby’s home at Kirkby-in-Ashfield. The film premiered at an Annesley Old Church Project event at St Wilfrid’s Church Hall, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, on 22nd October 2014 and DVD copies were made available for the public to purchase.

Fig 11: The Annesley Vampire DVD, 2014.

In addition to the film, the DVD also contains digitalised footage from the two original horror films with voiceovers and interviews with Eddie Newby and Jean Gascoigne (nee Thorley) who featured in the ‘Spawn of the Vampire’.

Fig 12: The Annesley Vampire Facebook Page

More information about the Jayrich Group and The Annesley Vampire film can be found on the ‘The Annesley Vampire Facebook Page’ @ https://www.facebook.com/Annesley.vampire

Blog by David Amos

Posted on 4th December 2025

References

British Film Institute, Screenonline – NCB Film Crew Unit http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/474432/

Dave Goulder’s Railway Songbook, 2012.

Lee, T. The Regent Cinema, Kirkby-in-Ashfield 1930 – 2004: A Selection of Papers Tracing the History of the Regent, 2004.

NCB Film Crew Unit 1947-1983, Database of Mining Review films. Source: David Amos collection

NCB Mining Review, 16th Year, No.1, September 1962.

Nottingham Area NUM Minutes, 1952.

Notts Free Press, various reports 1962, including Picture Parade, 28th September, 1962.