The Great War Trail App

We have developed a mobile app that provides a self-guided walking tour (named On the Warpath) of Lancaster. The walking tour presents multimedia relating to Lancaster in the First World War, linked to key locations along the route. Media includes photographs, textual descriptions, audio clips and archive video footage (such as the King’s Own 5th Battalion marching to the station).

The walk starts from the museum steps in Market Square and the app guides you through key places of interest relating to the First World War including: the Town Hall and War Memorial, the old Drill Hall on Phoenix Street and, if you want to go this far, you can also visit the site of the old Wagon Works and Barracks on Caton Road.

The walk is approximately 4.7km and covers varying terrain (including narrow pavements and a woodland path). The full tour lasts approximately 2-3 hours at a slow walking pace and with long pauses at each Point of Interest. However, you can come and go from the route as you wish, visiting as few or as many Points of Interest as you like.

A prototype app is available for Android devices (please note that this requires Android version 5 or higher to run. It has been specifically tested on the Samsung S6 smartphone and Google nexus 7 tablet). This app has been built using a platform developed under the EPSRC funded SHARC project. If you have any feedback then please e-mail us on: greatwar@lancaster.ac.uk.

route