'Heart-warming' Remembrance memorial with hundreds of crochet poppies unveiled

A community group has, for the second year running, unveiled a ‘heart-warming’ memorial of crochet poppies to mark Remembrance Sunday and remember the region’s fallen heroes. 

Ladden Garden Village Community Group have crocheted hundreds of poppies over the past six months, which are now displayed at the entrance to the Ladden Garden Village development on Leechpool Way in Yate.    

The ‘poignant’ installation has been revealed to commemorate the contribution of British military and civilian servicemen and women involved in the two World Wars and later conflicts. 

A Remembrance Trail throughout Ladden Garden Village also serves to honour the service and sacrifice of those who lost their lives fighting for their country.  

Esther Pickup-Keller, a Ladden Garden Village community group member, said: “We received such a terrific reaction to the installation last year that we knew we had to do it again. 

“While we managed to reuse a lot of the poppies from last year’s installation, we had to make many more as the development has grown significantly over the past 12 months and we wanted to decorate the new areas with crocheted poppy wreaths.  

“We’ve been lucky that we’ve had a ten-strong group of volunteers busily crocheting over the past few months who have produced the most fitting tribute to those who are no longer with us.” 

The streets in Ladden Garden Village are named after soldiers from South Gloucestershire who died in the first World War.   

Over the past three years, the local community group has produced information about each of the heroes which they posted to residents to help them learn more about the person their street was named after.    

This year, details about the region’s fallen soldiers will be displayed throughout the development during November to mark the armistice agreement that ended the First World War.  

Hywel Snook, associate vicar at Yate Parish and member of the Ladden Garden Village Community Group, will lead a walkabout at 2pm on Remembrance Sunday (November 12), to quietly remember and pay his respects to the Armed Forces, veterans and their families.