The school uniforms are as much a part of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as ghosts, Quidditch and Harry Potter.

Anyone who has seen the film will be familiar with the grey V-neck jumpers and stripy scarves, which, far from being the product of magic knitting needles, were made by a family-run business in Goring, near Worthing.

While work continues on the second film, Charles Kirk and Co are making new jumpers a couple of sizes bigger to accommodate the rapidly-growing young actors.

The 100-strong team of machinists in Goring Street have run up more than 1,100 scarves and 800 pullovers for the cast and crew since October 2000.

Managing director Charles Horton had never read any of JK Rowling's books before winning the £10,000 contract to make the uniforms for the first and second films.

Now he rivals his two daughters, Elizabeth, 16, and Sarah, 14, as a die-hard Potter fanatic, even taking the four books on holiday.

Mr Horton said: "One of our customers won the contract to supply the school badges for the film and they recommended us to Warner Brothers.

"We had to send samples of our knitwear and they wanted more. We went to Warner Brothers studios and they had a lot of artwork showing the colours to be used. A lot of it was specific to the book.

"All the jumpers were grey with different colour trims depending on what house the characters were in and the scarves were also in house colours.

"When the children are on the train to school their jumpers are plain grey. When they get to the school and put on the Sorting Hat it decides which house they will go into.

"The two main jumpers and scarves we made were for Gryffindor, which had gold and burgundy trims, and Slytherin, which had silver grey and forest green trims.

"The main characters have grown out of their jumpers from the first film so we've had to make some more one or two sizes bigger with extra length in the sleeves.

"The order came in for more in November and we made most of them last month but we've still got a few left to complete.

"It's been a great boost for our staff and we're absolutely delighted to be doing this."

Mr Horton's company, founded in 1939, also made a one-off sweater for the character of Dudley Dursley, Harry's spoilt muggle cousin.

Mr Horton and his staff couldn't wait to see their hours of toil on the big screen.

He said: "We went to the cinema as soon as the film came out.

"When I saw the jumpers come up on screen it was a proud moment for me and especially the staff who had made them.

"The jumpers and scarves have had more screen time than anything else in the film. The main characters wear them all the time."

The Harry Potter knitwear is not available to buy but the company has donated an extra scarf to Mayor of Worthing Valerie Sutton to be auctioned at her music quiz on March 7.

The Gryffindor scarf, labelled "Property of Hogwarts", will be one of the prizes on offer at the charity event hosted by television presenter and DJ Mike Read at Worthing Assembly Hall.

The quiz, with £100 prizes, will be held on March 7. Tickets cost £6 and are available from 01903 206206.