Posts Tagged "ceramic poppy memorial"

A Prototype Display for the Ceramic Poppies

Posted by Liberty Hen in World War 1 Centenary | 8 comments

A Prototype Display for the Ceramic Poppies:

Since the 5 ceramic poppies arrived from The Tower of London, we have been trying to come up with a way to put them on display in the Village Hall so that they can be used to commemorate the  5 soldiers from Castle Coop who were killed in WW1.

Arranging the Poppies for Display:

The poppies arrived on quite long steel stalks – about 14″ or so and we’ve been trying to think of a way to arrange them so that they can all be seen together in a way that doesn’t look too stiff or formal.

Here is what we’ve come up with!

 The Prototype

Step 1:

Amazingly, the Chairman of the Village Hall has an original WW1 barbed wire screw  picket. It was found on a Somme field as part of the annual ‘Iron Harvest‘ and he’s very kindly donated it so that the ceramic poppies can be displayed against it.

During the First World War, screw pickets were used for the installation of wire obstacles; these were metal rods with eyelets for holding strands of wire, and a corkscrew-like end that could literally be screwed into the ground rather than hammered, so that wiring parties could work at night near enemy soldiers and not reveal their position by the sound of hammers.

(source: Wikipedia)

It still has a bit of (modern) Somme mud on it.

We thought we’d try entwining the poppies around it, bending the steel stems so that the flower heads face upwards as if growing towards the sun.

Step 2:

The Castle Coop gamekeeper then produced a bit of barbed wire which the Chairman of the V. H. wound around the whole thing, having bent the stems a bit more:

If other villagers give the arrangement the thumbs up, we’ll need to encase it inside a box frame. Then it can be put on permanent display inside the Village Hall next to or near the Rolls of Honour on which the names of the 5 soldiers are written.

What do you think?

Do you think it will look appropriate?

We are all very anxious to show the Poppies off to best advantage.

Yours absolutely thrilled to think that our 5 poor soldiers will now each have their own poppy by their names in their own Village Hall,

The Ceramic Poppies have arrived!

Posted by Liberty Hen in Castle Coop News, World War 1 Centenary | 4 comments

The Ceramic Poppies have arrived…

& they’re so beautiful!

The 5 ceramic poppies – bought in honour of the 5 soldiers who enlisted from Castle Coop and who were killed in WW1 – have arrived safely.

Here they all are:

Just as each soldier was an individual so each of the ceramic poppies is different from all the others.

I can’t get my head round holding these poppies here in Castle Coop,  knowing that they were part of that incredible display at the Tower of London. It is amazing to think that those poor 5 soldiers who were killed, all have their own poppies now, right here in the village they once lived in…

What a thrill!

Yours feeling rather awestruck,

Poppies at the Tower of London!

Posted by Liberty Hen in World War 1 Centenary | 2 comments

 Poppies at the Tower of London!

The ceramic poppy memorial at the Tower of London is simply amazing.

Yesterday  the Chairman of the Village Hall & I nipped up to London & met the Agent outside a pub called The Hung, Drawn and Quartered on Tower Hill.  We all wanted to see this incredible display before Remembrance Sunday and spent the afternoon at the Tower of London, taking it all in and  admiring it.

We spent ages watching volunteers busy planting some of the last of the 888,246 that make up the display.

The Agent disagrees with me (& indeed, feels so strongly that he was moved to write a firm letter to BoJo, Mayor of London) but I am so glad that the some of the ceramic poppy memorial will remain in place at the Tower until the end of November so that as many people as possible can get to see it.

Yours totally struck by the eloquence of all those poppies and by the genius of ceramicist Paul Cummins who had the idea behind the ceramic memorial in the first place,

Tim Holyoake who blogs at: Just One More Ten Pence  has published some really good photos of the poppies  -much better than mine – and also, a post  which made  the Agent exclaim, ‘Good Man!”

Post Script: 11/11/14

The last poppy was planted by cadet Harry Hayes, 13, from Reading Blue Coat School