IN the summer of 1916, the sleepy French village of Bus-les-Artois was where soldiers from around the world, including Bradford Pals, spent their final days before advancing to the front line.

The village is just a few miles from the Somme battlefield, which claimed thousands of lives on the first day of the bloodiest of battles, July 1, 1916.

Still carved into the church walls at Bus-les-Artois are soldiers' names, regiment numbers and dates. A barn was turned into a cinema. In another was a bar where the men enjoyed a beer in the sunshine.

A century on, a group of Bradfordians are heading for the village, affectionately known as "Bus", for an annual remembrance service. Afterwards they will raise a toast to the men who didn't came home - and Dudley Hill brewery Salamander has donated casks of 'Bradford Pals' beer for them to take.

The trip is organised by Bus to Bradford, a group made up largely of Bradford City supporters who raised £3,000 for a Bradford Pals memorial, unveiled in Bus-les-Artois in 2016.

Bus to Bradford treasurer Andy Tyne says it will be particularly poignant to be in the village in the centenary year of the end of the First World War. "It’s the Bus-les-Artois Centenary Armistice Remembrance Service on Saturday, June 30 and we'll have 25 Bradfordians there to remember those Bradford soldiers," says Andy. "The village is re-opening its old estaminet used during the war and we'll be pulling Bradford beer for all those attending the service. Attendance is expected to be high.

"A building used as a bar by soldiers based there will be re-opened specially for us. Volunteers from our group will be setting up the casks and pumps and pulling pints for those joining us."

Adds Andy: "Bus-les-Artois is a fascinating place. It's where the two Bradford Pals battalions and others including the Leeds one were billeted before and after the Somme battles. It’s very moving to see the barn where they slept and words that they carved into the church walls with the tips of their bayonets."

A century after the war, villagers continue to find exploded shells in their gardens and surrounding fields. In a makeshift museum in an outhouse are items left behind by the soldiers, including shaving kits, combs, toothbrushes, stretchers, helmets, petrol cans and binoculars.

A former mayor of Bus-les-Artois, Philipe Rouvillian, found a ginger beer bottle in his garden which, it turned out, was made by Milnes and Son of Undercliffe. The company's name was inscribed on the glass. It operated from a site that became the Hare and Hounds pub in Undercliffe. The bottle either travelled to France in a Bradford soldier's pack-up or was sent out to him by his family back home.

“Monsieur Roubillian digs his garden each spring and every year finds the odd detritus of war. He linked the Bradford connection on the bottle with us, and donated it to us when we visited,” recalls Andy.

The old ginger beer bottle is now kept at historic Undercliffe Cemetery, where some Bradford Pals are buried and others are commemorated on family graves.