Volunteers make thousands of handmade poppies for church display

A group of volunteers have made thousands of handmade poppies for their local church display.

A voluntary group at St Mary's Church in Maryport have been creating displays of handmade poppies ahead of Remembrance Sunday this weekend.

The poppies have been knitted and crocheted with each one being entirely unique.

Catherine Coulson, a volunteer St Mary’s Church, said: “It's been hard work, we've spent our time doing them. We've have had a lot of help from lovely people but it's been ongoing since August and we feel we've done a good job."

The group have been hard at work for countless hours creating the displays. Enlisting the help of surrounding towns and villages.

Linda Radcliffe, Mayor of Maryport, said: “We were delighted and overwhelmed in a lot of ways because a lot of the people, we don't even know them.

"They're from villages and towns around like Cleator Moor, Workington, Seaton, Dereham, all of the places. So it's quite a lot of poppies and people have told other people, so it makes it a wider social activity than we ever envisaged it would be.

“I hope it impacts in a meaningful way for people when they see the poppies together like this because this is a time when we ought to remember all who have lost their lives for the sake of others."

Next year the volunteers hope to adorn the outside of the church, recycling this year's poppies and adding new ones.

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