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Air Raid practice at Knoll School Hove

When the sirens wail, watch these children grab their gas-masks and dash to the shelters in this astonishing and sumptuous colour film about Air Raid Precautions at Hove School.

Amateur film 1940 15 mins Silent

From the collection of:

Logo for Screen Archive South East

Overview

This stunning film shows how, when the siren sounds, the children and staff at Hove School are well prepared. We see children don respirators while continuing their lesson. Girls and boys in various classes, including domestic science and woodwork, drop everything at the sound of the alarm, and dash, with their teachers, to the school's communal shelter. Two girls have their injuries dressed in a mock First-Aid exercise and we end with a patriotic pair on a rocking-horse.

It is possible that this film was made just prior to, or at the very beginning of the war, in order to reassure worried parents that their children would be safe in the event of air-raids in the vicinity of Hove. Colour stock was widely available at the time though it should be noted that the film stock is American and may well have come from a source outside the UK. Records at the East Sussex Record Office indicate that Knoll School for Boys, on the Old Shoreham Road in Hove, opened in 1931 with a girls school being established a few years later. The school closed in the 1980s and was replaced by a business centre.