Town festooned with knitted poppy tributes

Scores of volunteer knitters and crocheters have made sure a town was "painted red" - as well as blue and purple - in time for Remembrance Sunday.

The Whittlesey Poppy Blitz has taken place for seven years and sees the Cambridgeshire town swathed in colourful woolly displays.

New pieces have been added annually, this year included a parachute regiment, wartime nurses and a tribute to carrier pigeons.

Volunteer Amy Wareham, 43, said the displays relied on the "wonderful work of our knitters" who do their best to patch up and mend some of the designs from previous years, while also creating new ones.

The Poppy Blitz team fundraises for the Royal British Legion.

Wareham said: "A host of creative volunteers starts work in January each year to help maintain the existing displays and knit or crochet items for new features.

"This year's new items include a flock of carrier pigeons, a field of poppies topped with wartime planes adorning railings on the square and panels by a local nursery school and a nursing home.

"There are also soldiers from the Parachute Regiment and wartime nurses, which were requested last year by a visiting veteran to represent his regiment, and another who asked to honour the efforts of nurses in years gone by."

Pieces from previous years are stored in a shed in the town's cemetery, including Joey the war horse, created in 2023 using more than 3,000 knitted purple poppies.

Wareham said: "It takes 15 minutes for an experienced knitter or crocheter to create one poppy.

"The war horse is covered in 3,000 poppies - that was 31.25 volunteer days taken before the team even added to the frame.

"It's no mean feat," she added.

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