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Thousands of poppies bloom along charity trail

Nicola Haseler/BBC Three life-size silhouettes of soldiers, carrying backpacks and weapons, approach a purple horse's head in a field covered with red and purple woollen poppies.Nicola Haseler/BBC
There are 18,000 red and purple woollen poppies covering Woburn Sands, Aspley Guise, Aspley Heath and Bow Brickhill for a two-week charity trail
Nicola Haseler,in Woburn Sandsand
Zoe Applegate

A "poppy army" wielding crochet hooks and knitting needles has led a friendly invasion by covering a town and surrounding villages in 18,000 of the symbolic flowers.

Red and purple woollen poppies have bloomed on a charity trail across Woburn Sands and surrounding villages on the Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire border, ahead of Remembrance Sunday.

The display, featuring silhouettes of three soldiers approaching a horse in a field of poppies, started to blossom when a group appealed for people's creations.

Lorraine Hearn, of Woburn Sands Poppy Army, said: "It's been a really, really incredible thing, and I think one of the most important things of all, it's brought people together."

Nicola Haseler/BBC A purple crochet-covered horse's head is in a field with a triangle of purple mesh punctuated with purple poppies trailing behind it.Nicola Haseler/BBC
Organisers said it had also been important to them to commemorate fallen animals as part of the Remembrance Sunday trail

She said the group had originally been inspired by spotting stunning displays in other parts of the country.

Hearn said the project had brought together craft lovers from organisations, including the Brownies and Women's Institute, as well as people who could not knit or crochet, but were happy to sew or make pom-pom flowers out of wool.

Nicola Haseler/BBC Hundreds of red and purple woollen poppies on green stems cover a grassy area. There is a white house and bench in the background.Nicola Haseler/BBC
The woolly blossoms have also been installed in villages surrounding Woburn Sands

"I had no idea how it was going to work and was just asking if there were any volunteer knitters and crocheters available to knit hundreds and hundreds of poppies," she said.

"Our original challenge was 3,500 poppies but as time went on we thought it would be lovely to merge other parishes."

Nicola Haseler/BBC A close-up of a red knitted poppy with a black centre, stuck in the grass.Nicola Haseler/BBC
Some of the flowers have come from as far away as Hong Kong

The display will run in Woburn Sands, Aspley Guise, Aspley Heath and Bow Brickhill from 2 to 17 November.

Nicola Haseler/BBC A purple crocheted statue of a horse's head, surrounded by red and purple poppies in a field. There are houses in the background. Nicola Haseler/BBC
About 37,000 crocheted links covered a specially-commissioned wooden sculpture of a horse's head

Money raised from the trail will be donated to the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.

Nicola Haseler/BBC Silhouette cut-outs of three soldiers approach the purple crocheted horse's head and a purple mesh train. There are red and purple poppies in the field too.Nicola Haseler/BBC
Organiser Lorraine Hearn said "hundreds and hundreds" of knitters had wanted to "do their bit" to help create the horse

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