PEOPLE got an insight to what life was like during the two world wars when one of the North-East's defensive strongholds was reinstated at the weekend.

Members of the Headland Re-enactment Society, in Hartlepool, donned authentic uniforms worn by soldiers who manned the gun-point at Heugh Battery, and gave talks about the threat that the people of Hartlepool have faced during the past 150 years.

They gave demonstrations of what it was like to be in a gas attack and fired a Vickers machine gun and 1917 Lee Enfield rifles using blanks.

Society chairman Neil Forcer and his colleagues started off as guides at the battery and then someone had the idea of dressing up in uniform.

"It has snowballed from there really and now there are nine of us and we have got all sorts of kit," he said.

Built in 1860 to defend Hartlepool from attacks from the French, the battery is the only one in the country to have seen action and engaged German ships.

It was active until 1954 when it was decommissioned at the end of conscription.

Mr Forcer is now planning to turn the site into a visitor centre and hopes it will become a major tourist attraction for the town.

As well as seeing the British Tommy in action, people were treated to a weaponry display from SS Das Reich - a re-enactment group set up to recreate life in Hitler's black-shirted brutal police force.

On Saturday, another group which re-enact the Normandy landings were at Seaton Carew with their period vehicles such as half-tracks, police motorbikes and ambulances to take pictures of them coming up the beaches.