Old home movies are being used to help trigger the forgotten past of people with dementia and other memory loss.

It is part of a new project called Memory Bank developed by the Yorkshire Film Archive (YFA) along with healthcare professionals and carers.

Old films have been carefully selected to help participants remember the past.

YFA director Sue Howard said one user had said: “It’s like peeling back the years – the memories are still there, its just needs a trigger.”

The majority of the films being used are home movies shot in and around Yorkshire from the 1940s to 70s, all of which are housed at YFA which is based at York St John University.

The social care system is often said to be in crisis. Thousands of people each year sell their homes to pay for the care that the state is struggling to provide. Could retirement villages be the solution for some?

Leslie Wolfendale is quite clear. The 89-year-old describes the move to Willicombe Park Retirement Village in Kent three years ago as the “best move we have ever made.”

“We have lived all over – Berkshire, Cheshire and south Wales. But we have never regretted moving here.”

Leslie and his wife, Joanne, moved to the village, which boasts 67 one- and two-bedroom properties, a gym, swimming pool and restaurant, from south Wales where he had worked as a managing director of a manufacturing company.