An exhibition at York's Clements Hall this Saturday will give a unique insight into how one York neighbourhood coped during the long years of the|First World War. STEPHEN LEWIS reports

AT the time war broke out in 1914, much of what we now think of Clementhorpe and South Bank was a newly built, expanding suburb of York.

Like other areas of York, however, every person, household, business and institution in the area was to be profoundly affected by what happened over the next four years.

The South Bank area bore the brunt of the devastating Zeppelin raid on the night of Tuesday May 2, 1916, which left nine people dead and 40 injured.

Among the dead were George and Mary Avison of 13 Upper Price Street, who had been married for 45 years and whose bodies were recovered from the wreckage of their home by volunteers on the morning of Wednesday May 3.

Emily Chapman of 6 Nunthorpe Avenue was also killed. There were no searchlights or anti-aircraft guns in 1916, and many deaths or injuries were caused by residents going out onto the street to see what the strange noise coming from the sky was. "Emily ...was killed outside her house," reads an entry in a newsletter-style pamphlet recording the wartime lives and deaths of the people of South Bank produced by the Clements Hall Local History Group. "Her father Gerald spoke later of hearing six bombs drop in rapid succession. His wife Ada and daughter Norah were unable to attend Emily's funeral as they were injured and in York County Hospital."

The impact of the war on South Bank went far beyond the Zeppelin raid, however, dreadful as that was. The Bar Convent, which was a well-established girls' school, converted its concert hall into a hospital ward. Between January 1915 and July 1917 it treated many British soldiers, who were often en route to other hospitals.

Nunthorpe Hall was also lent to the Red Cross by its owner, Sir Edward Lycett Green, as a hospital. It opened in October 1915, and its first patients were men injured in the Battle of Loos.

In 1913, Terry's chocolate factory set up a small unit of the Territorial Force - Terry's Territorials - and from 1915 onwards, as more and more men went off to the trenches, women began to work in the Terry's offices for the first time.

The Scarcroft and Hospital Field Allotments were established in 1916, and used to grow potatoes - which, as the war dragged on, became a substitute for wheat.

From December 1914 to April 1915, meanwhile, Scarcroft School was taken over as a military billet - and then again the following winter. Scarcroft children themselves helped the war effort in various ways. Boy Scouts were trained as War Office messengers, and also carried out coastguard duty, guarded railway lines and harvested crops. Local children even contributed to the war effort directly, by putting their savings into a 'Tank Bank' in Parliament Street - one of six Mark IV tanks that toured the towns and cities of England, Scotland and Wales to raise money and promote of sale of government War Bonds and War Savings Certificates.

In short, life in South Bank was a microcosm of life across the country during the First World War.

We know so much about how the people of South Bank were affected by war on the home front because, for two years, members of the Clements Hall Local History Group have been digging into the area's history from the Great war years.

With the help of a £10,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, they have been trawling through old newspapers and collecting and recording evidence from archives, school log books, old photographs, family letters, diaries and war memorials.

The results of their efforts will be brought together in a major exhibition at Clements Hall this Saturday (November 18) from 11am-4pm.

South Bank York 100 Years Ago showcases life in York both during the war and in its aftermath. It will include displays of old photographs and newspaper cuttings, two short films (one about the Zeppelin raid, and one about 'conscience and conscription') and even a live performance.

Three free publications will also be launched at the event, says Dick Hunter, who has led the history group's First World war project: a booklet about Scarcroft School during the First World War; a First World War 'heritage map' of South Bank; and 'Our Local Times', the afore-mentioned newsletter-style publication bringing together stories about the people of South Bank during the war.

It will be a drop-in event running all day - and for those who would like to find out more about how their own ancestors coped during the war, there will be expert advice on hand from family historians Ken and Linda Haywood of the Bishopthorpe Local History Group.

BLOB South Bank York 100 Years Ago runs at Clements Hall in York from 11am-4pm on Saturday (November 18).

To find out more, visit the Clements Hall Local History Group's new website www.clementshallhistorygroup.org.uk