This in from the council, in their own words. Ed
An annual event at Havenstreet’s Isle of Wight Steam Railway, which will be transformed to replicate a wartime station, is taking place between 23 and 25 June.
Organised by Isle of Wight Council’s heritage service, the event recreates the scenario that tens of thousands of school children went through over 70 years ago.
Pupils and staff from schools will dress up in World War II clothes and will arrive at the Steam Railway with gas masks ahead of a ride of the train, mirroring the experience from the war years.
Wartime food, rationing and toys
Pupils will taste authentic wartime food, learn about rationing and the toys children during the war played with.
As happened during the war, there’s every chance the lessons could be interrupted by an air raid siren. If this happens, the pupils will be directed into a small air raid shelter. As they board their train and are waved off from the platform, they will get a real feeling for how it might have felt to be evacuated all those years ago.
Morning and afternoon sessions
Each day there will be morning sessions held between 10.15am and 12.30pm with trains leaving at 10.35am and 11.51pm. On Thursday there will be an afternoon session between 12.40pm and 2.30pm with the train leaving at 1.40pm.
The activities have been put together by the Heritage Education Service to support the learning of students as part of their history programme.
Image: David C Jones under CC BY 2.0
