Kristie Kinghorn
BBC News Online

That brings us to the end of our dedicated coverage of the centenary of the Hartlepool Bombardment.

Image source, Owen Humphreys/PA Wire

There will be further updates on the BBC North East Local Live page. And here are links to our other coverage of the bombardment - an audio slideshow with archive pictures and first-hand accounts, a feature looking at Hartlepool then and now and the German perspective on the bombardment.

Hartlepool-born James Clark produced this oil on canvas of the bombardment just weeks after the attack in 1915.

The Bombardment of the Hartlepools shows a young girl being taken to safety by a local fisherman as soldiers from the Heugh Battery defend the town.

Image source, James Clark

This evening, to commemorate the centenary, a special performance is taking place on the Headland.

Image source, Richard Osborne

Homecoming by Periplum is a free outdoor arts event, external telling the stories of Tees Valley residents' contribution to the war efforts, both on the home front and overseas on foreign battlefields.

Tynemouth 1914-18 tweets, external: After the attack on Hartlepool the Borough of Tynemouth braced itself for an attack.

Image source, Tynemouth 1914-18

These medals commemorate the bombardment of Scarborough and Hartlepool.

Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information

A memorial stone stands on the town's coastline between the battery and the North Sea coast path marking the site of where the first shell fell. Each year a memorial service is held at the site on 16 December.

A £400,000 project has been taking place across Hartlepool to bring to life the centenary through a series of events, exhibitions and outreach projects in the Tees Valley.

The programme of events, funded by the Arts Council, is to help young people learn about World War One, external and about their own families' involvement in the bombardment.

These officers and men were in charge of the Hartlepool Battery on the day of the bombardment.

Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information

Mark Simmons said the bombardment caused a huge spike in terms of raising money for the war effort and recruitment.

Between August 1914 and July 1919 people in the borough raised £545m for the war effort and more than 21,000 men were signed up through the town's recruitment office.

The attack on Scarborough was used in recruitment posters.

Image source, Scarborough Museums Trust

Hartlepool museums manager Mark Simmons said his research into the bombardment had been a poignant experience for him, particularly researching footage of one of the military funerals.

He said: "You always feel to yourself a sense of sadness because you are looking at real people's lives and you are looking at their deaths and whenever you see that footage I see the grief in the people.

"I have that with all the bombardment victims, that sense of the more I know about them the more I feel for the real people that they are."

Image source, Scarborough Museums Trust

Letters and diary notes from the German sailors involved reveal their perspective of the attack.

"Our ships showed that not only does Britannia not rule the waves, but that it cannot even protect its coast."

This was the scathing summary of one young German sailor, writing in his diary, after the bombardment of Hartlepool.

Image source, Deutsches Navy Museum

And as far as this sailor was concerned, victory over the British Navy was decisive. Britannia most certainly did not rule the waves, as the song claimed.

Mrs Chapman said her grandfather went to see his parents and sister and found his sister frozen in her chair from the shock.

Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information

She said her mother recalled everyone was running to the station because they thought it was an invasion.

Mrs Chapman said her mother remembered it "not with horror" but spoke about it a lot.

Angela Chapman's mother Mary Almond was four at the time of the bombardment and lived in Kinburn Street, near the seafront, with her two-year-old brother Fred and parents.

She said: "It was her mother's birthday. Her father had gone to work and they were having breakfast at the table with her mother spooning porridge into Fred's mouth when they heard a noise which her mother said was thunder.

"Her father came running in and said 'get the children and run'."

She said they ran to another home belonging to the family in Corporation Road and her mother remembered losing her shoe and "making a big fuss about it".

On the 100th anniversary, against a backdrop of photographs from the time, watch an audio slideshow with the words of those who survived the bombardment recalling their memories.

Image source, Hartlepool Culture and Information

The students from Dyke House School who produced the poem said it had meant a great deal to them to be involved.

Rebekah said: "It's really important that teenagers our age know what happened 100 years ago," while Will said: "It's given me a different perspective on history."

Liam said: "People think nothing has ever happened in Hartlepool but this project is keeping alive the memories of people who lived 100 years ago." That was something fellow pupil Sophie agreed with, saying: "It's been a great experience because Hartlepool is often seen in a negative way but this project has shone some light on Hartlepool's history."

The school's head of history Jonathan McDaid said: "The best thing about this project has been hearing the stories of people who have died and then sharing them with the students."

As part of the World War One At Home project, 80 hours of audio was discovered at Teesside Archives. It was recorded in the 1980s with people who were teenagers at the time of the bombardment giving their first-hand accounts.

Pupils from Dyke House School, in Hartlepool, listened to the audio and with the help of performance poet Kate Fox produced a poem.

They thought about what it was like for teenagers 100 years ago who were on their way to school when the bombardment started. Listen to the poem here., external

To commemorate the centenary of the bombardment, church bells will ring out across Hartlepool to pay tribute to those killed in the attack.

Bellringers across the town will ring the bells at several churches throughout the day.

Image source, Hartlepool Council

Later this evening, the events on the Headland will draw to a close when the bells of the former Christ Church, St Oswald's in Brougham Terrace and St Aidan's in Stockton Road - 24 bells in total - will be rung for an hour.

David Rose emailed us about his personal connection to the Hartlepool bombardment.

He wrote: "I actually have a piece mounted on a plinth of one of the first shells to drop on Hartlepool. It was given to me by my late grandfather Edgar Leonard who fought in WW1."

Among the groups involved in today's memorial were the Commemoration Society 18th Battalion Durham Light Infantry.

Image source, PA

The names of the 130 people who died were read out.

The events for the centenary include 130 of the ceramic poppies from the artwork entitled Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which were at the Tower of London, being planted next to the memorial to represent each of those who died.

Image source, PA

It is the first time the poppies have been used at a public event since they were removed from London. Hartlepool's museum manager Mark Simmons said they were "very privileged" to be given the opportunity.

Some of the floral tributes left in Hartlepool this morning to mark the 100th anniversary of the town's bombardment.