Veteran makes poppy display from 2,500 bottles

Nearly 2,500 plastic bottles were used to create the display

A veteran has used hundreds of plastic bottles to create a poppy display outside his home in Leicestershire.

Chris Penrose, from Shepshed, who served in the Royal Navy from 1979 to 2002, made the display to mark Armistice Day.

Having worked on the project since the VE Day celebrations in May, the 63-year-old former chief steward believes there are more than 2,400 poppies on display.

The cascade stretches from the first-floor window of his terraced house, all the way down to his front door, and he said the response had been "extraordinary".

Chris Penrose said the poppies were made from the bottoms of soft drinks bottles

"Family and friends collected their soft bottles, cleaned them and sprayed them red," said Mr Penrose, who is the deputy Poppy Appeal organiser for Shepshed.

"I'm doing this in honour of our fallen soldiers. We must keep the tradition alive, and I would still be beating the drum even if no-one else in the local community was not remembering the conflicts.

"From May, this has been in the back of my mind. It was done in three different camouflage nettings. Once it was completed, it was rolled up and stored in the attic.

"It makes me proud that people acknowledge what we have done. People think about veterans from the First and Second World Wars, but we're helping people who are in conflicts now and have suffered because of it."

"I've had people walking past and speaking about it," Mr Penrose said of his display. "It's been phenomenal on social media, and I've had people looking around for the display.

"I haven't done this for the recognition. I would have done it for the pride of the Poppy Appeal and what it represents. If I have brought it to people's attention, then I have done my job."