Stunning red knitted poppies drape from church to honor veterans

By Adam Dutton via SWNS

A sea of thousands of knitted poppies have been draped from a church in Warwickshire to mark Remembrance Day.

Volunteers spent months hand stitching the 3,104 poppies adorned on the side of St Peter’s Church in Wellesbourne.

The blood-red cascade, which measures 21m (69ft) long and 5m (16ft) wide, was unveiled to commemorate British and Commonwealth fallen soldiers during World War One.

A further 4,899 wool poppies have been strung on shops and businesses around the village, which is six miles from Stratford-upon-Avon.

A pair of knitted soldier's boots and a helmet have been snugly placed as a postbox topper in the village center.

The 8,003 poppies were knitted and crocheted from wellwishers from as far away as Florida and the Caribbean as well as an army of knitters from the village.

Organizer Kate Skinner said: "I had seen other flower installations around the country over the last few years and wanted to create something for our village.

"In January, we set out to knit and crochet 4,000 poppies.

"At first I wondered if we'd ever reach anywhere near 4,000, but the community responded with huge enthusiasm and a total of 8,003 poppies were made, double what we asked for.

"The project has been a huge amount of fun and has brought many people together in the community."

The poignant display was created by 200 people who made the poppies from 800 balls of wool, which measured an astonishing 52 miles end-to-end.

Volunteers then spent 600 hours painstakingly sewing the poppies on to the netting which is draped from the church bell tower and weighs 32kg (5st).

Retired chemistry teacher and local resident Judy Klinkenberg, 70, said: "I made between 50-60 poppies, it takes roughly an hour to make one so I'd say I volunteered about 60 hours of my time.

"The whole village was involved, we had a WhatsApp group chat and the sessions were done in the church so everybody was together.

"Lots of people bought their own wool."