Locals were invited to recall how Jarrow and Hebburn came under fire during the darkest days of the Second World War.

Funded by the Big Lottery, the Their Past Your Future 2 (TPYF2) project, Respecting The Past: Remembering South Tyneside Wartime Memories, aims to create a unique historical resource for borough schoolchildren.

Hilda Spensley, 85, recalled the night when a bomb fell near her home in Victoria Street, Hebburn, during the early days of the war.

She said: "I was working as a typist in Reyrolle, Hebburn, and I remember we all had to get out of homes as quickly as possible after the bomb came down at the back of Price Street.

"It was pitch-dark and I remember looking down when I got to safety, and realising I had pulled on one black and one white shoe in the rush!"

South Tyneside local studies librarian Anne Sharp said the TPYF2 project will bring together various groups, including the Bold as Brass theatre company and creative writers from Pen and Tonic.

She said: "The project will create a useful resource for secondary schoolchildren, who we hope will become interested in how the Second World War affected the area where they live.

"One group of pupils were really interested when we held a recent session at the lecture theatre at South Shields Central Library."

The Hebburn Library event featured copies of archive German maps, pinpointing local areas targeted for bombing raids.

Ralph Sheraton, 76, from Cleadon, has vivid childhood memories of a bomb which narrowly missed the home of his grandmother, Jenny Redhead, who lived in Parliament Street, at Hebburn riverside.

"A house across the way from my grandmother's was hit and it afterwards became a bit of a playground for myself and other local children.

"I think it's an excellent idea to create a resource for schoolchildren."

German bombers would have probably been aiming to hit nearby Hawthorn Leslie shipyard, which included a Bofors anti-aircraft gun on its ballast hill.

The TPYF2 project, which is managed by the Museums, Libraries and Archives partnership, will last until November.