A MILITARY museum has helped bring survival in the trenches during the First World War to life for teenagers from one of the region's schools.

Youngsters have been trying on uniforms and shouldering the guns British soldiers were issued with between 1914 and 1918, during visits to the Green Howards Museum in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Archive footage of conditions on the front line has also added to the experience laid on for pupils from Richmond School.

Thirteen-year-old Sarah Kiani said: "I got to wear one of the uniforms and a greatcoat, which were very heavy. Reading about the war in books is one thing, but seeing the uniforms, weapons and equipment makes it all very real."

Classmate Kirsty Knight said: "The weapons are not nearly as sophisticated as the modern ones we have today. The visit has been very useful and interesting."

The Green Howards exhibition has been timed to coincide with the screening of The Trench - a BBC documentary on the Western Front, which begins on Friday night.

Museum spokesman Major Roger Chapman said: "Watching the programme will give students an idea of what the Western Front was like, but to come into the museum and handle the actual objects that their great-grandfather might have used can bring home the realities of war in a special and personal way."

History teacher Anthea Dunne said visits to the museum were backed up work already done in class during a four-week project on the Great War.

"Seeing the equipment and uniforms first-hand, and watching the film footage, brings history alive and makes it far more exciting," she said.