To Southend in Essex and the longest pleasure pier in the world (there may well be longer working piers and jetties in some of the world’s great ports) where this year Remembrance was commemorated by over 110,000 knitted and crocheted red poppies on green woollen chains draped the length of the pier (1.3 miles) and around key features.
Along the walkway rails and in the carriages of the little train (I love a ride on the little train)
An arch at each terminus,
A topper for the (now redundant) pier post box. From when seaside postcards were a thing.
And the Soldier of Remembrance; a steel sculpture filled with 2106 poppies, one for every Southend Soldier who died during WWI and WWII. I hope ‘soldier’ is a generic term to also cover sailors, and airmen and women, even if the figure is obviously an infantryman of the First War.
I know some of the women who contributed poppies. I regret not making some myself, but I had another project in hand which I didn’t want to break off. If you do any similar work the different patterns used, stitches and yarn was fascinating. My husband was less enthralled but he brightened up at the military kit display by the ticket office.
It was so popular it has been left up longer to view this week and the attendants say they have never known the pier so busy. Today being a working and school day the visitors were some very respectful Chinese students and a lot of older people many with small grandchildren. They may not retain a specific memory but they might absorb the principle without realising. That’s the pre-school children not the grandparents.
