Weeping Window poppies 'draw 120,000' to Woodhorn Museum

Woodhorn described the Weeping Window installation as a "spectacular success"

Thousands of ceramic poppies, previously on display at the Tower of London, have attracted about 120,000 people to a Northumberland museum.

Weeping Window has been on display at Woodhorn, Ashington, for seven weeks.

The poppies, cascading from a pit wheel at the former mine, represent British and colonial soldiers killed in World War One.

The display will close for the final time at 17:00 GMT and be transported to Liverpool in the coming days.

Director Keith Merrin described it as "a huge honour" for Woodhorn to have been the first venue after the Tower of London to host Weeping Window's 5,000 handmade poppies.

'Looks spectacular'

He said visitor numbers were equivalent to the museum's usual annual total.

"We wanted to create something that really spoke to local people. The fact it cascades from a pit wheel has given it a whole new meaning.

"It looks spectacular, but also really resonates with people who see the pit head as a symbol of the North East.

"Suddenly the poppies became about the North East and about its role in the First World War."

Weeping Window last year formed part of the Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red installation, which saw 888,246 poppies on display in the Tower of London's moat.

Along with a piece called Wave, it was bought by charities and gifted back to the nation.

It will go on show outside Liverpool's St George's Hall on Friday, 7 November until 17 January, 2016.

Both it and Wave will tour the UK until 2018. They will then be permanently homed at the Imperial War Museums in London and Manchester.