ARMISTICE 100: Colourful cascade of poppies

Liz Pratt and Diane Dakers, from Karbon Homes, which runs Weavers' Court, with former Royal Navy Wren Catherine Davies and the Wooley Weavers group.

The ground floor reception area at the Extra Care scheme, run by Karbon Homes, features a waterfall knitted and crocheted poppies, made by members of the Wooley Weavers group and the local community.

Liz Pratt, Extra Care Scheme Manager at Weavers’ Court, said: “With this year being the centenary year of the First World War, we wanted to mark Remembrance Day by doing something a bit different.”

So Liz enlisted the help of the Weavers’ Court Wooley Weavers, a knitting and crochet group that meets every week in the building.

“I put the idea of creating a poppy installation to the group, who were really eager and excited about the project and got to work straight away. However it was a photo I posted online of the group at work which changed everything.”

The photo Liz posted on the Weavers’ Court Facebook page received an overwhelming response, and the group started to receive donations of knitted poppies to add to the installation from members of the local community.

“We were receiving poppies through the post, having them hand delivered to reception. It was brilliant to see how many people wanted to get involved in the project.

The poppy cascade at Weaver's Court, Alnwick.

“As word got around of what was going on, we had a lot of people mentioning that they would have loved to contribute but they couldn’t knit or crochet. So we decided to run a felt poppy workshop, so others could add their creation to the cascade.”

The final result was a cascade of more than 1,000 poppies, unveiled on November 1 by the Wooley Weavers group at their weekly meeting.

Liz added: “It’s created a real buzz around the place, and when the sun shines through the front door on to the red, it really brightens up the place. It’s wonderful to see how proud everyone is of what’s been created.

“It doesn’t matter if people have played a big or small part, the outcome is that something has been achieved together.

“We love projects like this create a real sense of community and provide an opportunity to socialise, build friendships, and help to tackle loneliness and isolation.”

The memorial cascade will be the perfect welcome to the centre when it hosts its annual Remembrance service with Alnwick Baptist Church tomorrow.