Hundreds of knitted poppies used to create 'Tommy' soldier in Wooler

Seated in the Market Place as part of the town’s remembrance commemorations, it has been proved a popular spot for a photo opportunity in recent days.

"Lots of people have said how pleased they are with it,” said local resident Susannah Scott, who came up with the idea.

"I thought it would be nice to do something a bit different and it seems to have caught the imagination judging by how many people have been getting their picture taken with it.”

The poppies were made by local residents for last year's impressive cascade of more than 2,000 poppies at the war memorial.

“We wanted to re-use them and we had initially thought of doing the cascade again but all the nets got tangled so we thought we would do something different,” revealed Susannah.

"Quite a few local communities do their own cascade now so that was another reason. So we cut off all the poppies and came up with the idea of the soldier.”

Her husband, Jake, moulded it into shape and her mum Patricia spent two weeks stitching the poppies together for the Tommy tribute.

The hat was made by Cecelia Du Pree and the medals were made by Janet Laycock. There is also a poppy wreath.

“There are around 600 poppies on it so it’s been a fair bit of work,” said Susannah.

"It was actually sitting in my dining room for about two months before we put it out!”

‘Tommy’ has been used as a generic term for a British Army soldier for many years but is particularly associated with the First World War.

In 2018, Tommy figurines were widely used to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ending of the First World War.

The Royal British Legion adopted the poppy as its emblem when it was formed in 1921 following a movement that originated in the US and Canada and spread to France.

A postbox topper is also being made in Wooler.

Wooler will mark Remembrance Sunday with a short service at St Mary’s Parish Church at 2.30pm followed by wreath laying at the war memorial.