Poppy carpet made for village without war memorial
Warninglid does not have a permanent memorial to its war dead
- Published
A West Sussex village that lost young men in both World Wars but has no war memorial has found a creative way to honour its fallen.
A group of 39 crafters has been knitting, sewing and crocheting since the beginning of May to make a crimson carpet of more than 3,000 poppies.
It has been laid out at the feet of a Tommy soldier silhouette in front of The Half Moon pub at Warninglid's village crossroads.
On Remembrance Sunday morning, villagers will gather there for a reading of the names of those who died in both wars, a reading of For the Fallen, and a two-minute silence.
A relative of two of the war dead will attend, as well as a horse which will represent the animals taken to war from the village's farms and stables.
Thousands of poppies have been stitched together to form the carpet
The Poppy Project was led by Carol Pickering, who personally crocheted 1,550 of the poppies for the carpet, which was finished on 30 October.
Warninglid no longer has a church, and has never had a war memorial, so the project was created to remember those who gave their lives in both world wars.
Their names are marked on crosses placed into the carpet of poppies.
The fallen remembered
In 1914, the village saw 39 of its young men leave to go to war.
Of those 13 did not return.
In WW2, Warninglid lost another six men on active service between 1940 and 1945, as well as a few civilians.
They are all commemorated on two Memorial Boards, which used to hang in the former church, but will be on display in the pub on Remembrance Sunday.
Attending the reading will be Andrew Turville, a great-nephew of two of those who are commemorated, Private George Herbert Turville who died on 7 December 1915 and Corporal Percy Turville, who died on 25 September 1917.
Bobby, a 21-year-old Connemara horse, will represent all the horses that were commandeered from the village farms and stables that were never to return.
The project involved 39 of the villagers from May to November
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