'The fire brigade helped us install our poppy display'

Myddle's Twisted Stitches group knitted and crocheted thousands of poppies for their display

A group of knitters have been working hard for 10 months to create a cascade featuring thousands of poppies to decorate their local church.

The nine women of Twisted Stitches, a knitting and crotchet group in the Shropshire village of Myddle, crafted a 12-metre-tall artwork to mark Remembrance Day.

However, it was so heavy and unwieldy that they had to "rope in" local firefighters who dodged the church's resident bats to safely install it on the belfry.

"We winched it up under the cover of darkness so it was a surprise for everyone," said knitter Bethan Flynn.

"It began with Jan actually, with one of her crazy ideas," Louise Bullock said, adding that after decorating the church lychgate the previous year, the group decided to "do something a bit bigger".

"I saw [a cascade] on the Abbey in Shrewsbury and thought we could do that," Jan Butler said, adding that the team "had no idea how much was going to go into this".

They started knitting in January, and began sewing the red and purple poppies on to the fabric in July.

"We might never have done it I think if we'd understood what we were doing," Ms Butler said.

Donna Elliott, who set up the group, said the finished result was "amazing"

"It looks a bit like a halter neck dress," Donna Elliott said, describing how the poppies "go around the clock in two separate pieces and then just all cascade down to the bottom".

"I don't think I ever thought the finished result would be as amazing as it is," she added.

Kim Firth, who joined the group after moving to Myddle from North Wales, said the process was "amazing".

"I can't believe how it's turned out!"

A team from Baschurch Fire Station used the opportunity for a training exercise

Once the cascade was complete, the next challenge was attaching it to the church belfry.

Baschurch Fire Station came to the rescue, and even used it as a training exercise for their volunteer crew.

"They came one Wednesday night - they brought the fire engine with all of their lights and their giant ladders," Bethan Flynn said.

The firefighters "went up the belfry, past all the bats, right to the top" before lowering ropes to winch up the poppy display, she added.

Steph, Bethan, Trish and the rest of the group are "all great friends"

"I think everybody likes it," Steph Sales commented, adding that she "slows down when I'm driving past to look at it".

"A lot of churches and communities are doing this sort of thing - I think it's inspiring."

They are even running a raffle in the village for local residents to guess how many poppies are on the cascade.

The group said they had developed a close bond from their months of high-intensity knitting and crocheting in a room at the village's Red Lion pub.

"We know all sorts of things about each other now," Trish Sale laughed, adding that they are "all great friends".

Donna Elliott joked that the cascade looks a bit like "a halter neck dress"

Elsewhere in Shropshire, other towns and villages have also been busy decorating for Remembrance Day.

In Moreton, a village near Newport, locals have knitted a cascade for the church lectern, as well as creating a giant poppy to mark the occasion.

Ludlow knitters have made a "poppy waterfall" made by local schoolchildren, care home residents, and individual volunteers.

And in Baschurch, knitters have created a cascade that similarly hangs from All Saints Church to replace a 2018 creation that was made to mark the centenary of the end of World War One.