Powys town's church unveils stunning poppy waterfall

Assembled from poppies knitted over the past year by the ‘Knit and Knatter’ group organised by Shirley Jones in October 2021, the waterfall at St Mary’s Church, Llnafair Caereinion, was unveiled on October 21, 2022.

The project was put together to coincide with the 2022 poppy appeal organised by the Royal British Legion.

The groups began their collaboration after Samantha Webster, chair of Llanfair Caereinion and District Royal British Legion, attended a coffee morning at the Llanfair Institute that also included the ‘Knit and Knatter’ group and approached Shirley with the idea of a knitted poppy display.

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The group enthusiastically agreed to the idea and began work on the proposed concept of a waterfall of poppies from St Mary’s Church.

They purchased large quantities of red and black wool, some of which was donated by Powys Association of Voluntary Organisations, and a basic pattern for a knitted poppy was shared to speed up the process of creating them all.

Over 60 people were involved in the project, covering a range of ages with the youngest being 10 years old and the oldest aged 90.

The group also wanted to honour civilians and animals that also perished during the various wars and conflicts so it was then decided to knit white poppies in memory of civilians and purple for animals.

An old 4.5m by 9m Army camouflage net was purchased, hundreds of small red cable ties and the task was then to fix the poppies of all different sizes and shades of red to the net.

The poppies along with white and purple contributions which relate to peace and the animal casualties of war respectively.

The process of attaching all the poppies to the net took approximately 60 hours, while Gareth Chapman, Dylan Jones and Rowan Chapman, from Andrew Watkin Building Contractors Ltd, helped Alan Webster put up the net on the church.

Children form Bro Caereinion Primary Phase sand at the church for the unveiling and a competition to guess how many poppies are in the waterfall is ongoing with a £50 prize.

A spokesperson for Llanfair Caereinion and District Royal British Legion said: “This has exceeded what we all expected and we cannot thank the Knit and Knatter Group enough for all their hard work in knitting poppies, also all those that were unable to be part of Knit and Knatter but sent poppies in to be included.

“We hope that we can one day have the waterfall from the top of the Church tower, until then our Knitters and Knatters are going to continue to knit poppies, ready for that special day.”