A CAMPAIGN by two parishioners of St Peter’s, Petersfield, to knit enough poppies to brighten the church porch, evolved right into a community-wide initiative which produced greater than 17,000 poppies.
The Vicar of Petersfield and Rector of Buriton, Canon Will Hughes, told the Church Times this week that the 2 women, Christine Rushton and Rosemary Roberts, had last 12 months been inspired by The Longest Yarn, a touring exhibition of knitted wartime memories (News, 7 June 2024), which had reached the Royal Garrison Church of All Saints, Aldershot.
They set an ambitious goal of manufacturing 6000 poppies, Canon Hughes said, and, by June, this had been surpassed. The recent goal was 12,000 poppies. “Knitting groups across the community began to come back together, and poppies began to be sent in from across the community, the country, and even some from New Zealand. Children’s workshops in the summertime holiday added paper poppies, including purple and white.”
Martin HowRosemary Roberts, with volunteers, ties poppies to the frame
Local builders’ merchants donated materials to make the frames to display the poppies, and a Christmas-tree farm donated the scaffolding needed to erect them. “The frames were within the church through October, and scores of volunteers got here to tie poppies on,” Canon Hughes said. “We stopped counting at 17,000 poppies.
“The whole porch is roofed, as are the gates, and inside there is a big waterfall of poppies, while every windowsill has drifts of them. I actually have a poppy stole!”
The poppies were the backdrop to the civic act of remembrance within the town square, and the Sunday sermon, he said, was based on “the individuality of every poppy inside the sea of red. Attendance was huge, and afterwards a queue formed across the town square to are available and see the poppies. Now, the church is at all times filled with people and faculty groups coming to see, and to try to identify, those they knitted.”
The display, which went up in October, is as a result of be taken down this weekend. The local funeral director has agreed to store the display for next 12 months.
A “gentle ministry of knitting and talking has taken root”, Canon Hughes said. “Some meet to knit in the neighborhood café, which now has 80 to 100 guests each week.”
