Wool villagers knit 5,000 poppies for Remembrance cascade

Residents of a Dorset village have crafted thousands of poppies to create a giant Remembrance installation at their local church.

Volunteers in Wool lived up to their village’s unusual name by knitting and crocheting more than 5,000 individual poppies by hand.

The project was organised by the Guerrilla Gardeners – a local group which primarily fundraises to plant bulbs and flowering displays in the community.

After enlisting the help of locals, the red Remembrance poppies were attached to an 18m-long cargo net which now hangs from the 13.2m-tall bell tower of Holy Rood Church.

Before assembling the artwork, the group had to solve the puzzle of how to wash the giant netting, still full of mud and twigs after it was donated by the army.

They eventually cut it in to three for cleaning before stitching it back together and practiced hoisting it up, with expertise from a mountaineer who reportedly abseiled down the tower some years ago.

Having assured themselves the plan would work, the team launched an appeal along with a pattern for the poppies – even offering lessons to crocheting newbies at a monthly coffee morning.

Sue Burroughs of the Guerrilla Gardeners said the ambitious project “could not have been done without the help of a lot of people in our local community”.

“In fact so many people have helped with this project there are too many to mention, from an expert mountaineer who knows about ropes, and the expert on the bells in the tower – the rope is attached to the bell frame.

“Then the person who puts up the church flag and an expert in risk assessment. All those who knitted, crocheted and attached, and so many more.”