AN AMBITIOUS plan to create a ‘field’ of poppies to commemorate 100 years since the start of the First World War was launched in Burnham on Sunday.

As a build-up to the Remembrance Day service in Burnham, silk poppies are being sold to the public which are now being planted in Manor Gardens to create floral war tributes all across a large flowerbed.

The aim is to have 1,000 poppies planted over the course of the campaign.

Poppy Appeal organiser Gaynor Brown said: “We had the launch with our MP and the mayor on Sunday and we planted around 200 poppies.

“Basically we are doing something like what they are doing at the Tower of London but they are using ceramic poppies and we are using silk, so it is a bit trial and error.

“The ground was a bit soft when we put them in on Sunday but are hoping they will hold. When people buy the poppies they also have a slip of paper to write their message to loved ones and we marry up the poppy with the message.”

Gaynor added that the Burnham Poppy Appeal volunteers this year had the mammoth task of selling 180 boxes of poppies with 470 selling slots to fill in supermarkets and other outlets. Hundreds of people have so far volunteered their time to help sell poppies up until Remembrance Day. There will be a special thank you event for these volunteers at St Andrew’s Church Hall on November 15 at 6.15pm where the totals raised by each collection will be revealed.

In London the aim is for 888,246 ceramic poppies to progressively fill the famous moat at the Tower in an installation entitled ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ to mark the centenary since the outbreak of the First World War.