This is a West Riding Civil Defence exercise that took place on Sunday 14th March 1965, around Aireworth Street, Keighley, filmed by amateur filmmaker Michael Lockwood.  It was based on a scenario of Keighley having just suffered an airburst nuclear attack, between a megaton and a kiloton.  It was a large scale exercise involving in total 350 people, including many young people from local schools:  Eastmoor Approved School, Leeds, the Army Apprentice School, Harrogate, and Tong Park House...

This is a West Riding Civil Defence exercise that took place on Sunday 14th March 1965, around Aireworth Street, Keighley, filmed by amateur filmmaker Michael Lockwood.  It was based on a scenario of Keighley having just suffered an airburst nuclear attack, between a megaton and a kiloton.  It was a large scale exercise involving in total 350 people, including many young people from local schools:  Eastmoor Approved School, Leeds, the Army Apprentice School, Harrogate, and Tong Park House School, Baildon. Title – The End? The film begins with foreboding music as two green West Riding Civil Defence lorries arriving in Aireworth Street with derelict terraced housing.  Civil Defence personnel disembark and put on rucksacks.  This is followed by an ambulance arriving.   They make their way down the street where they carry out a rescue operation.  Several men are rescued form the second floor of a half demolished terraced house.  They are each strapped to a wooden board, or part of a wooden ladder and lowered down through the window with ropes and laid out on the ground.  Some are carried into the ambulance.  Several pedestrians, including children, are watching the exercise.  Among those participating are young cadets.   A man is helped off a roof with a ladder.  He too is strapped to a board and lowered by ropes, and taken to the ambulance.  One man observing has an armband with “Umpire” on it.  The ambulance drives through the derelict area, passing a billboard advertising TV rental for 8’ 3 [8/- 3d].  The ambulance stops at Holden Hall in Oakworth, marked with a Red Cross, and the injured are taken inside.  Outside the building women cook soup in large vats heating up in wood burners, and pastries are being cooked in an oven. Title – Where next? Title – Filmed by Michael Lockwood This film has been awarded FIRST PRIZE in the 1967 Annual Competition of the PRESTON CINE CLUB.