Thousands of handcrafted red poppies are yarn bombing over a village church in the run up to Remembrance weekend.
More than 5,000 woollen poppies can be seen cascading from the bell tower and over the walls of St Mary’s Church, at Walsham le Willows, near Bury St Edmunds.
Inside the building, in The Causeway, there are 40 poppies on display to commemorate the 40 men from Walsham who died in the First and Second World Wars, whose names are listed on the War Memorial in the churchyard.
The profusion of poppies have been knitted and crocheted by more than 75 talented local crafters to mark Armistice Day and raise funds for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal.
Jan Hall, who led the project with the village British Legion representative Fiona Glover, has been overwhelmed by the response to their appeal for local crafters to make poppies.
She said: “It has been amazing.
“I never imagined that so many people would get involved and it has really brought everyone together over the last year.
“A small group of us tied the poppies onto netting and hung it from the church tower after dark to give everyone a surprise on Sunday morning.
“It’s the first time the church has been ‘yarn-bombed’. We are grateful to the Vicar Philip Merry and the church council for allowing us to do it.”
The poppies will adorn the church for the next two weeks leading up to the Remembrance weekend, which will also feature an evening of readings of letters written in times of conflict performed by Walsham Drama Group on Saturday, November 11, at 7.30pm.
“A Celebration of Letters” will include letters that are poignant, sometimes amusing, thought-provoking and painful, written by leaders, soldiers and their families before the era of emails and social media.
Admission is £5 on the door and all profits will go to the British Legion Poppy Appeal.
The church has a long history and dates back to the last thousand years and a recognisable fragment from the late 1100s can be seen in the north aisle.
The tower and the font belong to the 1300s, but the church had its greatest make-over from about 1400, when the builders were busy, on and off, for a century.
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