The remote site of Breary Banks in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales is where the volunteers of the Leeds Pals brigade trained before they were dispatched to fight, but between 1904 and 1926, the temporary camp originally built to house navvies digging reservoirs to serve Leeds was arguably part of the grand scheme which built the modern nation. Excavations at the site, and associated documentary research, revealed a fascinating insight into a lost chapter of our history.