An exciting World War One/Two project
Air Raid!
At Christ Church Primary, North Shields, we have always valued our local heritage, so we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund First World War: then and now grant to help us investigate air raids in both world wars.
Project Blog
Discovery Museum Visit
The children had a great day at the Discovery Museum. The first session the children took part in was the Blitzed workshop. The children were taken to a large 3D map of the River Tyne and surrounding area. The teacher asked them to look for reasons, the Germans would...
read moreWhole School and Parents’ Assembly
A big WELL DONE to Year 5 who presented their Air Raid Project activities to a whole school/parents' assembly on Friday. We found out what they had learned and most enjoyed from the project and then we were taken on a journey through 1914 to 1918 as the children...
read more77 Years Ago Tonight
This from our air raid warden, Mr Wilkinson On this night, 77 years ago, my great grandfather's lemonade factory in North Shields was hit by a bomb from a lone German raider. The three-storey premises were destroyed. The bottling machinery fell into the air raid...
read moreFamily Stories
We asked Year 5 to do some homework for the Air Raid project. We asked them to talk to older family members and relatives and to bring in any famliy history or stories connected with either WW1 or WW2. You can see the results below. A great response. Well...
read moreIn The Style of Paul Nash
Big thanks to artist Kate Hancock for showing us how to do these! She showed us works by the war artist Paul Nash and we looked at how he composed his pictures before starting our own. We hope you like the gallery! [gallery link="file" size="medium"...
read moreDog Fight Silhouettes
Check out our gallery - Dog Fight Silhouettes. We loved doing these with Kate Hancock. They are bright and colourful and we think they give a different look to aerial battles. [gallery type="rectangular" link="file" size="medium"...
read moreArt at War!
A wonderful day of art inspired by Paul Nash and led by Kate Hancock. Paul Nash (11 May 1889 – 11 July 1946) was a British surrealist painter and war artist. Nash was among the most important landscape artists of the first half of the twentieth century. He played a...
read moreAir Raid! – App-Smashed!
Y5's Air Raid project continued today with a marathon session of app-smashing with the awesome Martin Bailey. Martin took the children at breakneck speed through an amazing collection of iPad apps which placed an emphasis on creativity and imagination. And if there's...
read moreAir Raid Disaster!
The children listened carefully to the story of the Wilkinson's Air Raid Disaster of 1941. A single bomb from a lone German bomber scored a direct hit on the air raid shelter in the basement of Wilkinson's pop factory. 107 people were killed, 43 of them children under...
read morePreston Cemetery Visit
A walk from school to Preston Cemetery. The children's mission here was to locate the graves of several WW1 soldiers and WW2 air raid victims, record the details featured on the headstones and where appropriate take a gravestone rubbing using paper and wax crayons....
read moreTime Traveller Air Raid Warden arrives from 1941!
Morning registration was disturbed by the unexpected arrival of a time travelling Air Raid Warden from 1941! Warden Wilkinson crashed into the classroom and quickly took control of the squad of surprised young wardens. Wilkinson took the children through a quick...
read moreSpy Reports and ARP Warden ID Cards
Phew! Lots of group work and collaborative writing, ideas-sharing and discussion as the children completed Spy Team Profiles and submitted their reports on the Victoria Tunnel Mission to superiors in Berlin. The class consensus was that the tunnel/shelter should be...
read moreVictoria Tunnel – Deep and Dark!
A 2 hour guided tour of the wonderful Victoria Tunnel air raid shelter - complete with Byker Grannie, Air Raid Warden, Gerard the Teacher and Basil. Basil McLeod, aged 88 held the children spellbound as he recounted his wartime childhood, evacuation and how he spent...
read moreZeppelin Postcards – Fake News!
Our Year 5 History Explorers are great listeners! They learned about the Zeppelin raids over the North East and were asked to examine 2 "doctored" photos purporting to show actual Zeppelins over Blyth and Bedlington. They quickly spotted how the photos were fake and...
read moreLiving Zeppelin runs out of room..and Droney gets lost!
A very good effort by Year 5 to create a living Zeppelin across both school yards. With the Zeppelin's length of 163.5m we found that that the school yard was 30m too short! Still, we managed to create an outline of the huge airship using most of the actual dimensions...
read moreAbout This Project
Air Raid - Civilians in Danger! At Christ Church Primary we have always valued our local heritage, so we are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund First World War: then and now grant to help us investigate air raids in both world...
read moreProject Activities
Just some of the activities planned for our project…

Victoria Tunnel Visit
The Victoria Tunnel is a preserved 19th century waggonway under the city from the Town Moor to the Tyne, built to transport coal to the river and operated between 1842 and the 1860s. The Tunnel was converted in 1939 into an air raid shelter to protect thousands of Newcastle citizens during World War 2.

Preston Cemetery Guided Visit
Preston Cemetery is the site of various Commonwealth War Graves and the final resting place of very many of those killed in the Wilkinson’s air raid shelter disaster of 1941.

Mr Wilkinson - ARP Warden
ARP warden, Mr Wilkinson, will drill the children on all aspects of air raid precautions and will check that they can carry out the duties of school air raid wardens safely and correctly in his absence. Should be fun!

Martin Bailey - Animate2Educate
Expect an exciting day of app-smashing and iPad fun led by one of the UK’s leading teachers of Primary computing, Martin Bailey. The children’s work will be featured on this website.

Kate Hancock - Artist
Kate will be using the work of artist Paul Nash, who worked as an artist in WW1 and WW2 as a starting point for children to create their own artwork. Children will explore Nash’s surrealist style and ideas on symbolism to convey their own thoughts about their learning during this project.
Project Resources
Check out the links below. They’ll take you to some interesting information resources which will give background to our Air Raid! project.
Project Lesson Plans and Activities
Please find below links to PDF versions of a selection of the lesson plans and activities used in the project. They are provided as a resource and a signpost to additional activities for other schools covering World War 1. If you need further information please feel...
read moreThe Wilkinson’s Disaster: Real History but Grim Reading
The old Tynemouth Borough Civil Defence records of those who died in the Wilkinson Lemonade Factory Disaster are held by Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums Service, in Blandford House (Discovery Museum), Newcastle. As each victim was identified for burial,...
read moreThe Fallen – WW1
As part of our project, the class will visit Preston Cemetery. One of the tasks they face will be to locate the graves of the following WW1 military personnel. Please click the images to enlarge. For full details on each person please visit the database...
read morePreston Cemetery
Commonwealth War Graves There are 370 commonwealth war graves in the cemetery. Most of the 152 First World War burials in Tynemouth (Preston) Cemetery are distributed throughout the cemetery, but there is a small war graves plot in the north-western part. Opposite...
read moreAttack on Tynemouth!
The first air raid on Britain came on the night January 19/20th 1915. The target was Hull but because of bad weather two Zeppelins dropped their bombs of Kings Lynn and Yarmouth, killing four people. But this was not the first time that civilians became casualties. A...
read moreThe Gotha Threat
Germany’s aerial bombing campaign against Great Britain in the First World War, with London as its primary target, was the first sustained strategic bombing campaign in history. These raids, using airships, bomber aircraft, and seaplanes, ran from December 1914 to...
read moreThe Wilkinson’s Air Raid Disaster 1941
The main public air raid shelter serving the east-end of North Shields was situated in the basement of the W.A. Wilkinson’s lemonade factory, situated on the corner of King Street and George Street. The basement of this Victorian building was designated as an air raid...
read moreSchool Log Books
Here are the Christ Church Infants and Christ Church Girls School log book entries for 1915-1917. They make interesting reading. Take a look and see if you can manage the Edwardian handwriting! If you have any questions...use the form at the end of the page. School...
read moreUseful Web Links
northshields173.org
explores the Wilkinson’s air raid disaster of 1941
Robert Westall – Official website
North Shields born author of The Machine Gunners
Tynemouth World War One Commemoration Project
World War One – BBC Schools`
First World War – Imperial War Museums
What Were Air Raids Like? – BBC Schools
Usborne Quick Links – WW1
Online Teaching Resources for World War 1
Tynemouth World War 1 Casualty Map
with thanks to Tynemouth WW1 Commemoration Project
Can You Help?
Parents / Grandparents…Have you got any family memories of North Shields during the War? We’re looking for stories about air raids during World War One AND World War Two. We’d love to hear from you!