Town turns red with display of poppies
Spectacular response for Great Thatcham Poppy Knit Remembrance
THATCHAM residents have been thanked for contributing more than 2,000 poppies to a new Remembrance display.
With people being unable to attend this year’s Remembrance Sunday service due to the coronavirus pandemic, Thatcham Town Council wanted to find a way to allow the community to be involved in the town’s commemorations.
The community was set the challenge of the Great Thatcham Poppy Knit – to either knit, crochet or stitch a poppy to form part of a larger installation.
Non-knitters and children were encouraged to paint a stone with a poppy and youth groups were encouraged to recycle their plastic bottles and make poppies from them.
Town centre businesses were asked to make a red window display in their stores and the town council also purchased 12 large acrylic poppies to adorn the lampposts around the Broadway Green.
Poppies started coming in from Thatcham U3A, Thatcham WI, Thatcham Library and the residents of Alice Bye Court.
By mid-October the town council had received 300 poppies, a good number for the new project, but officers decided to do one final push before the closing date.
In those final two weeks, the community stepped up with more than 2,000 poppies sent in.
The poppies were displayed on Miss
Annette Henry’s Oak Tree on the northern end of Thatcham Broadway.
Miss Henry donated the tree in 1900 to celebrate the turn of the century.
The town council said that the tree was chosen as it would have seen soldiers coming back from both World Wars, people marching past on Remembrance parades, as well it being in the historic heart of the town.
Town council staff took several days to pin the poppies to netting and three hours to secure it to the tree.
Red solar powered lights were added for the display to shine at night.
Mayor of Thatcham Mike Cole said: “I was confident that our brilliant community would produce something amazing, but I think we were all a little taken aback by quite how much they really embraced it.
“This time, more than ever, we wanted residents to feel a part of something and to know that, even though we couldn’t all gather for Remembrance Day, we were all still connected as a community.
“Thank you to everybody that submitted a poppy and to the town council officers who undertook the project on top of their usual work.”
The poppy display was taken down after Armistice Day and will be preserved for future Remembrance events.
People can still paint stones and place them in the marked out area on the southern end of the Broadway Green.