A breath-taking poppy display is now in place along Bromyard’s bypass as the town marks 100 years since the end of World War One.
The town’s branch of the Royal British Legion (RBL) say they’ve been resurrected as a result of the project to make 3,000 poppies from plastic bottles.
Secretary Major (Retd) Jan Brodie-Murphy has overseen the project, as well as the planting of the poppies along the A44 on Sunday. She said she couldn’t believe her eyes at the finished piece.
“When we formulated all this last year, the only way this is going to work is by bringing the community on board,” she said.
“We wrote religiously to everybody we could think of and we wrote out personally. A year on now, these are our friends now. We’ve gone to every school, every care home, we’ve worked with every group and we’re resurrected our branch.
“People don’t want to join anything unless it’s vibrant. It’s got to be something they want to support, and it’s got to have a purpose. We’ve found that over the past year and it’s helped us enormously. People want to join us and it’s all due to this World War One commemoration.
“I knew it was going to work because it was a vision, but I have to say I could not believe my eyes at how amazing it all looked. It took my breath away really and it has a lot of people, seeing is believing.”
As well as the poppies along the bypass, there’s a smaller display outside Queen Elizabeth High School and another is planned for St. Peter’s Primary.
Often referred to as ‘the town of festivals’, St. Peter’s Church in Bromyard will host the Royal British Legion’s poppy festival from next Saturday (3rd November).
The RBL usually put flower displays in the church for Armistice and the Remembrance Sunday services, but this year they are inviting local groups to help with a display of handmade items.
But Major (Retd) Jan Brodie-Murphy is reminding people that the most important thing is to bring the community together to remember those that lost their lives during WW1 and other conflicts.
A family centre in Bromyard is helping by making a horse ambulance decorated with drawings of some of the 16 million animals that were deployed in the Great War.
“We’ve got things like a retired carnival wooden horse which is now brown and with the HOPE Centre, which is a family centre in town, they’re going to turn it into a World War One horse who’s pulling a horse ambulance,” she added.
“They’re going to draw pictures of all the animals, because so many animals were killed in World War One as well, anything from camels to elephants, horses and dogs.
“That’s going to be a feature, the Brownies are doing something, the W.I and the archery club so it’s going to be full of different organisations’ displays.”
The Poppy Festival will be on until Friday, November 16 and anyone wanting more information on the Bromyard RBL can visit their Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/rblBromyard
