Newhaven Fort Exhibitions & Displays (page 3)
Housed in the old Quartermaster’s store, this is the largest exhibition at Newhaven Fort and it gives a fascinating insight into the lives of those left at home during conflict.
The blitzed house simulates the effects of bombing. Discover the ARP wardens rescuing a trapped civilian from the rubble, a Morrison shelter providing safe refuge for its young occupant, the Anderson shelter in the back garden and an emergency first aid post set up in a bomb damaged shop to treat some of the casualties.
An absolute must is the ‘Blitz Experience’, a realistic recreation of what it was like to spend time in a street or underground shelter during an air raid. The comforting narration reminds everyone that, in this instance, they are quite safe. This experience is run throughout the day at times notified on the shelter door.
Situated in the tunnel that used to be the fort coal store is an audio visual presentation featuring local people who were civilians during the war. Sometimes humorous, sometimes moving and at all times fascinating, please spare some time to watch this poignant piece of living history.
Elsewhere you will find many home front related artefacts. Discover the many wartime restrictions that made normal life so difficult. Listen to wartime extracts of radio broadcasts by “Lord Haw Haw”, Flanagan and Allen and Churchill. Look at the wartime rations and shortages and discover how little there really was to eat!
To get to the radio room turn right from the Home Front and walk uphill, past the Grand Magazine, en-route to the southern ramparts. This is a fascinating collection of wartime working radio that includes equipment used by secret radio operators in occupied Europe. This is also a working amateur radio station that is often in contact with other “radio hams” worldwide. You can even have a go at tapping out your own message in Morse Code when the volunteers of Newhaven Fort Amateur Radio Group are in attendance.
Now walk back down towards the Grand Magazine, turn past the laboratory and pass behind the Searchlight Café and you will find the magnificent First World War display...
The ‘Great War’ – the war to end all wars - was the most destructive and costly war the world had ever seen. The horrors of the trenches and the huge number of casualties ensures that this most terrible of wars should never be forgotten.
Situated in the former Officer’s Quarters, the First World War exhibition is a poignant and moving experience. A short video introduces the causes, course and results of the battles. There is a trench scene and a particularly thought provoking audio poetry presentation alongside relics of the Somme battlefield. This is a huge, first class display of one of the most momentous periods in world history.
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