World War One Armistice marked by a trench at Carlisle Castle

The replica trench is currently being built in a hangar at Kingmoor Park on Carlisle's northern edge. It will soon be a pivotal part of This Day in 1918: one of several city centre events on Saturday November 10 to mark the centenary of the Armistice which ended The Great War.

This Day in 1918 takes place at Carlisle Castle, where it is hoped hundreds will attend. The trench will be manned by 'soldiers' in period uniform. Other attractions will include a replica Mark IV British tank - actual size and made from wood - and a hospital tent with wounded and medical staff, all suitably attired.

The event aims to give a compelling insight into "the war to end all wars". Robert Lowther will be involved in two ways. This former soldier will play a casualty in the hospital tent. Robert looks the part. His right leg has been amputated, not through military injury but through Buerger's disease, which restricts blood flow to the feet and hands.

Robert, from Longtown, is also the brains behind the trench. He had the idea just seven weeks ago. Things have progressed quickly: a testament to how the Armistice centenary has captured imaginations in Cumbria.

"I'd gone to see them at the castle," says Robert in the Kingmoor hangar, wheeling himself around piles of wood which await conversion into sections of trench. "I wanted to be a patient at the hospital tent. I thought, it's not really World War One without a trench.

"Something had to be done to make a statement at the castle. It needs something like this for people to see. We thought it would be 30 feet. It's grown to just under 160 feet."

Robert contacted Ronnie Papaleo. Ronnie lives near Brampton and has used his military expertise to build and supply props for many major films. These include trucks for Atonement and costumes for Captain Corelli's Mandolin .

"Robert turned up at my door," recalls Ronnie. "I wish I'd left it shut now!"

He has agreed to be consultant on the trench project, saying: "It started as a small idea. Because of the space, it's grown. There's a 180-foot grass strip at the castle parade ground and the trench will be on top of that. Because the MoD [Ministry of Defence] say they have so much scrap wood, we were able to do it. If we'd had to buy all this it wouldn't have happened."

"We just ask people," says Robert. "If you ask them they're normally quite good."

Wood has also been supplied by TG Norman Timber. Staff from Clark Door have helped to unload it. More Handles have donated tools. Kingmoor Park Properties donated this space, which used to be part of the RAF's 14MU site.

"Virtually everything is donated apart from a bag of nails and some screws," says Robert.

The structure is being built in sections which will be transported to the castle in flatpack form and assembled during the week of the event.

Since work began four weeks ago, Robert and Ronnie have been a two-man band. "Hopefully there'll be some spare hands helping us," says Ronnie. "We've got trainee joiners from Carlisle College to put it together at the castle the week before. I think we can get it up in two days. We'll need an army of volunteers to carry the event. An art department team will dress it up with props and fake mud."

Fake mud: mercifully, this project can be only so authentic. There will be sandbags - 1,500 of them from the MoD. But the barbs on the barbed wire will be grey-painted string: a trick Ronnie has used in the film world.

Health and safety was less a consideration on World War One's Western Front, when the Allies and Germans faced each other from the trenches they had dug across Belgium and France.

Neither side made much ground for more than three years of stalemate. Rats, disease and trench foot were hazards as well as bullets and shrapnel.

Even this version, built wide enough for wheelchair access, gives a sense of confinement. These wooden panels are about seven feet tall. In World War One some trenches were not high enough for men to stand without attracting fire from across No Man's Land.

Half of this trench will be dressed as British and the other half as German: alongside rather than opposite each other.

There will be two periscopes, one low enough for people in wheelchairs to use, with views of a tableau showing a ruined village.

The trench will be dressed at the castle with props including ammunition boxes, weapons racks, pots and pans. Officers had quarters with tables and chairs. The lower ranks' beds were dug into the trench.

"As the war went on that divide vanished and they just mucked in together," says Robert. "The war broke down those class barriers."

Display cases next to the trench will contain photographs and personal stories from local soldiers who served in the war. Some of them survived. Some did not.

Many were in the 'Lonsdale Pals' Battalion of the Border Regiment. The battalion was thrust into the Battle of the Somme. Its first day - July 1, 1916 - was the most disastrous in the British Army's history: 20,000 men were killed.

Ronnie says: "Of the 800 Lonsdale Pals who went into battle, 500 were injured or killed. They went like that" - he clicks his fingers - "within an hour, like the Manchester Pals brigade. They realised they couldn't send units from one town. They were wiping the whole community out. They started mixing them up.

"Everybody lost somebody or knew somebody who was affected. They just got up, man and boy, and did what they were told, and got slaughtered. It's being forgotten. We're trying to keep these people's memories alive. The kids need to know. There was 7,000-plus people from this area killed in World War One."

"Those 7,000 men died so everybody could have a tomorrow," says Robert. "What they did with it was up to them. But they got the chance. Could kids now get off their PlayStations and do that? How many people have got relatives who died in the Great War and have forgotten about them?"

These men will be remembered on November 10. Volunteers dressed as soldiers, nurses and prisoners of war will seem like ghosts of the past.

Robert hopes visitors will be able to write the name of a family member who died in any conflict on a ribbon, and that these can be tied to a wire fence.

"I'd like to see the ribbons collected, along with photographs of people who have helped with the event, and everything put in a box in Cumbria's Museum of Military Life so future generations could see how this generation honoured those 7,000 who never returned."

Ronnie adds: "I think it will be emotional. I hope some youngsters go through the trench and think why they can be on their mobile phones and do what they want to do."

Another delivery of wood arrives from the MoD. Ronnie goes off to supervise. Robert has removed nails from donated wood: a painful, bloody process for hands damaged by Buerger's disease. But he'll do the same again if necessary, knowing what other men went through a century ago.

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More than half of This Day in 1918's projected £20,000 budget has already been donated. More sponsors are sought. The costs include marquee hire, uniforms, sound systems, toilets and site security.

Any sponsorship money in excess of requirements will go to the Royal British Legion. Donations on the day will also go to the Legion. Admission is free.

During a recent volunteer day 40 people signed up to take part in duties including role play, production and marketing. More volunteers are needed on the day and to help build the trench. To be involved email carlisleremembers1918@outlook.com or text 07798 804047.

This Day in 1918 opens at 11am. There will be three 90-minute shows, at 11.30am, 1pm and 2.30pm. These include a Salvation Army band, Cumbria Army Cadet Force drill demonstration, and vignettes such as a protest by Suffragettes and conscientious objectors.

Refreshments will be available, served by staff in period costume, and a beer tent will operate under the rules of the State Management Scheme, which were in force in licensed premises at the time.

This Day in 1918 is one of several events on November 10 which comprise Carlisle Remembers 1918.

There will be a period market in the Market Square, finishing by 4pm.

After 4.30pm there will be a torch-lit procession from the castle to the Market Square. Carlisle mayor Jessica Riddle will read the terms of the Armistice from the steps of the Town Hall, as the city's mayor did 100 years ago.

At 7pm a Festival of Remembrance will take place at the Sands Centre with music from the era. Tickets are free. Visit www.thesandscentre.co.uk or call 01228 633766.

* The following have donated funds to This Day in 1918: Byers Bros, Lloyd Motors, Cartmell Shepherd, Mrs Claire Hensman, Saint and Co, Thomas Graham, Stead McAlpin, Cumbria Waste Group, Tuers Plant Hire, Carrs Group Plc, Cumberland Building Society, JDP Longtown, Burnetts Solicitors, RH Irving.