UPDATE - POPPY FIELD DONATIONS CONTINUE TO GROW

UPDATE - As of Sunday night, the total raised in donations to Bishop Monkton's poppy field stands at £287.79. The box for donations will stay until 1100 tomorrow morning (Monday) - We'll have a full report tomorrow.

On this, the country's Remembrance Weekend, in the centre of the village, down one side of the beck, bright red poppies can be seen “growing”, standing proudly alongside two soldier silhouettes, smartly and newly painted black for the occasion.

Situated in a box outside Burngarth are 200 rustic poppies, made by the owner of the cottage, Dave Molyneux, in memory of those men and women who gave their lives in defence of the country and Commonwealth. Passers-by are invited to take a poppy, place a small donation in the ammunition box specially sourced from the internet for the occasion, and then gently hammer the poppy, using the rubber mallet provided, into the grass besides the beck. All money raised will be donated to local remembrance charities.

The poppies were first put out for sale on Wednesday morning and by the end of that day, eight poppies had been “planted” with a generous amount of £60 having been placed in the collection box. Thursday was even more successful when between 10-12 more poppies were put out to "grow", with that day's donations totalling £56. Many children brought their parents along after school had finished especially to have a look.

Posting on Facebook, Dave expressed a huge thank you to those who had already taken a poppy, appealing to villagers and visitors to “please keep the collection going. It would be fantastic if we could get all 200 in the grass for Remembrance Day”.

Dave has pledged to plant all remaining poppies by Monday (Remembrance Day itself) so that the red swathe of poppies can remind the village of all those who have been lost in service since 1914. It would be lovely to hear that he did not have many left to put into the grass.

Two hundred poppies seems a large amount but amazingly they only took about two days to make and spray paint (two coats), aided and abetted, apparently, by numerous cups of tea. The red poppy flowers themselves are the bases of two litre bottles of water, while their tops were utilised as the black centre of the flower.

Did you know: Armistice is the Latin for to stand (still) arms.

The red poppy- a symbol of remembrance and hope for a peaceful future.

For our special feature on what Remembrance Day means to people in the village connected with the armed forces click