David Simpson, 82, had stored the film in a chicken-house shed, where it stayed for years until the project came to life with the help of his friend and local film-maker Terry Ladlow.

The vintage footage, which features such iconic locations as the North Bay beach and the South Bay pool, were taken by Mr Simpson’s late father-in-law Cyril Joseph Wilson, who lived in Oriel Crescent and Cross Lane.

He said: “Mr Wilson was an architect and engineer. He shot films on 16mm, an expensive medium at the time, from 1927 onwards.”

Mr Ladlow, 70, of Hunmanby, met Mr Simpson through Scarborough Video Society, which meets every fortnight.

He said: “David did not have a workable 16mm projector so he asked me to have a look at the films and transfer them onto DVD to enable him to have easy access.

“I have done this during October and found this remarkable record of Scarborough.”

He added: “The sequences on the short DVD rough footage disc were filmed probably around 1928-1930. The parade by the Spa indicates 1930 as one of the banners.

“At that time, 16mm film had not been out very long and it looks as though Cyril was one of the very early amateur cine pioneers.”

Mr Ladlow is in the process of making the material into a short 20-minute film entitled Scarborough Now and Then, showing what the locations look like in 2008 compared with the late 1920s-early 1930s.

Mr Simpson, of High Street, Snainton, was inspired to develop the project after seeing photographer Max Payne’s film of 1970s Scarborough, which was released earlier this year.

He said: “The films belonged to my father-in-law and they arrived here via his daughter. They have been kept in an old suitcase in the chicken shed which is now my garden shed. They have been there for at least 16 years because the film was quite brittle and it was very dangerous to try and process them.

“Terry said he had a projector which he thought would do the trick and it has done a very good job of it. When it was shown at the video club a month or so ago, people were saying it was incredible.”

The duo eventually plan to sell copies of the video and donate its proceeds to St Catherine’s Hospice.