Town to honour its fallen heroes with unique trail
Godmanchester Remembers - Credit: Archant
Residents and businesses in Godmanchester have come together to turn the town red with poppies in the run up to Remembrance Sunday.
Inspired by similar projects across the country, Godmanchester Remembers – The Somme Poppy Project 2016 was conceived to remember those who lost their lives in the Battle of the Somme.
Poppies of all sizes have been placed at dozens of locations throughout the town and will form a poppy trail for resi-dents and visitors to follow.
Organiser, Karen Pauley, said: “We wanted to honour these men and show that 100 years later we still appreciate what they did as it still means so much.
“I feel really proud of our town and the generosity of people that have got involved with the project is incredible.”
Along with the poppies, silhouettes of soldiers have been commissioned to remember the 14 men from the town who lost their lives in the battle that saw 420,000 British casualties.
“There will be dedicated displays for the 14 men and we have given the volunteers of these installations information about the men which will be displayed for the period of the project.”
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There are more than 1,000 poppies, donated by Trilogy Lasercraft, which are being handed out to the town’s primary schools, residents – for garden displays – and a host of businesses.
“It’s been incredible, I am over-whelmed at the response we have had since we began talking about the project in July. Everyone that we have spoken to have been so moved about the idea,” said Mrs Pauley.
Large poppies, which were sponsored by Godmanchester Town Council, will also be placed on lamp-posts in Causeway, Post Street and The Avenue leading up to the town’s war memorial.
Once all the poppies are in place on November 9 people are being invited to take part in a poppy walk to see a host of displays.
Maps of the displays are available from businesses in the town along with an interactive map which will be avail-able from the Godmanchester Remembers Facebook page.