IT'S fitting that during Remembrance Week primary school pupils dug a replica trench as used by First World War soldiers on the Western Front.

The 30 metre-long channel isn't quite as deep as the originals. It doesn't need to be, after all the youngsters at Lord Deramore's School in Heslington are pint-sized compared to wartime Tommies, but the attention to detail is remarkable, nonetheless.

And there is another reason for the project: to bring the history of the Great War to life. Not the horrors of trench warfare, but an understanding of the conditions men were forced to endure 100 years ago. To that end it is outdoors, damp and muddy.

Steve Danby, one of the parents, tells us it was a sobering experience. We can well imagine it. And really, that's the point.