British archaeologists and army volunteers have been delving into newly-rediscovered remains of a WWI practice battlefield in southern England, British Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced Friday.

The practice battlefield, located in Gosport of Hampshire County in southern England, is the size of nearly 17 football pitches with two sets of opposing trench systems with a no-man's land in between, the MoD said in a statement.

The deserted and forgotten century-old site had been used for training British troops before they were sent to the Front of WWI, according to the MoD.

It was rediscovered a few months ago when a conservation officer at Gosport Council spotted and recognized these trench systems on a 1950s aerial photograph.

Volunteers from the British army have been working with the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) to start mapping and recording the practice battlefield.

"Having the opportunity to see the trenches today really brings home the gravity of what the soldiers of the First World War had to face," said Mark Short, a corporal in British Army.

"It was fascinating to see a site used for pre-deployment training over 100 years ago and compare it to the training sites today," he added.

The rediscovery of the site marks the start of Britain's Home Front Legacy 1914-18 project which English Heritage and the CBA are teaming up to record the physical remains of WWI on Britain's home territory.

"Our aim is to record and preserve vulnerable sites, buildings and structures --camps, drill halls, factories and observation posts for example, before they and the stories they bear witness to are lost forever," said Dan Snow, President of the CBA.

Dan Snow said volunteers will scour the country's towns and villages to track down local WWI places that are just not in the records.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of WWI.