A COLLECTION of North-East memories caught on celluloid is receiving special treatment.

An archive at Teesside, incorporating temperature and humidity controls to protect old film reels, has received £850,000 government funding.

The earliest footage dates back to 1913 and shows a football match featuring Sunderland. There are also colour home movies dating back to the 1930s, regional news and current affairs programmes from the late 1950s to the 1980s. Channel 4 programme The Tube, showing one of Madonna's first live TV appearances also features.

The building housing the film reels, called The Vault, has been built with single regeneration budget funding from One NorthEast and houses the Northern Region Film and Television Archive collection spanning more than 90 years.

The building is in Middlesbrough and is attached to the University of Teesside's new cinema where archive screenings take place. Its official opening is today.

Alan Clarke, One NorthEast chief executive, said: "This vault is a wonderful asset for the North-East - charting on film its history from the early 20th Century and preserving these important images for future generations."

Simon Popple, assistant director of the university's school of arts and media and archive manager, said: "This is a vital cultural asset for the university, local communities and the region as a whole.

"We are very pleased that it has come to fruition after a period of very hard work by all those individuals and agencies involved and now hope that its contents can be discovered and enjoyed by everyone."

The archive collection can be used by commercial clients, academic researchers and the public. The Vault will be fully open next month.