Visitors to York Castle Museum are being given a chance to discover more of life in 1914 with their new exhibition marking the centenary of the First World War.

1914: When the World Changed Forever will enable people to experience life on the front line by crawling through trenches and decoding messages using semaphore and Morse code machines, with an opportunity to build their own Morse code machine.

There is also the chance to see what life was like for those who signed up to the army, with the museum’s Recruitment Officer running drill sessions to put visitors through their paces.

The exhibition also gives the opportunity for visitors to handle artefacts from the war and visit the Castle kitchens to try some of the traditional hard tack biscuit and anzac biscuits, which were sent to troops by Australian wives.

Lucy Knock, assistant curator of social history-informal learning, said: “With the opening of our new exhibition 1914: When the World Changed Forever, we wanted to give visitors the chance to experience the exhibition in a more hands on way that will appeal to both children and adults.”

The exhibition is part of a £1.7 million project at the museum.