LIFE in Manchester during the First World War can now be revealed at the click of a button.

A fascinating new mobile phone app and website offers users a unique trip back in time to delve through the 1914-1918 period of Manchester's history from the comfort of their own homes. The free Centenary Connections app allows phone users to access the war collections of many of Greater Manchester's museums, libraries and archives.

The project is a collaboration between 26 arts and heritage organisations and councils across Greater Manchester, led by the Imperial War Museum North at Salford Quays.

There are eight different 'journeys' which guide users around war- related material, letters, images and memorials to create a virtual tour.

The app and website delve into the role played by animals in Manchester during the war - and reveal the story of how three children from Wigan wrote a desperate begging letter to the then Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, asking him to save their pony Betty from a lifetime of labour to help the war effort.

Images of destruction are revealed when on the night of September 25, 1916, the war came to Bolton.

A Zeppelin bombing raid left 13 people dead, nine seriously injured and six houses destroyed. …