Gala Screening: The Hartlepools Bombarded

On the morning of 16 December 1914, the people of Hartlepool and West Hartlepool awoke to the terrifying sound of naval gunfire. In less than an hour, German battle cruisers transformed ordinary streets into Britain's first home front battlefield of the First World War. The Hartlepools Bombarded is a powerful documentary that brings to life the dramatic events of that fateful morning and the remarkable resilience of the communities that endured it. Through rare archival photographs, historical records, family stories, memorials, and cinematic reconstructions inspired by real events, the film reveals the human cost of one of the most shocking civilian attacks in British history. At the heart of the story is twelve-year-old Maisie Maddison, whose search for her relative Eleanor Necy – the youngest victim of the bombardment, killed at just six months old – connects past and present in a mov