THE Queen's Royal Lancers and Nottinghamshire Yeomanry Museum will be offering a realistic experience of the trenches this weekend.
The Thoresby venue is marking the 100th anniversary of the first shot being fired in the First World War with the unveiling of a trench, complete with machine gun post, barbed wire and view over no-man's land.
The trench will be the centrepiece of its Great War exhibition named Call To Arms", which also includes a company commander's dugout with maps, rations, a stone water bottle – and even a rum ration.
Staff and volunteers have planned the exhibition for months thanks to funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Lady Hind Trust and have used materials which would have been available to the British Military on the Western Front. Display boards will be updated each year to highlight key events and the regiments' roles during the four years of the conflict.
Curator Captain Mick Holtby explained : "This project highlights important actions of the war and the part played by the local regiments during WWI in an exhibition area which enables visitors to experience and learn about life in the trenches."