West Weald Poppy Cascade - one parish, five villages unite and remember
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West Weald Parish has been uniting in very special ways over the last eight months, to create a fabulous cascade of poppies to mark Remembrance 2026.
The breathtaking cascade has five swathes of poppies, sweeping down from the tower at St Mary’s Church Slaugham, each representing one of the five villages that make up West Weald Parish - Slaugham, Staplefield, Handcross, Warninglid, Pease Pottage with Woodgate. The display consists of 8,200 poppies, some crocheted and some knitted. 85 adults and many children have been involved making them, sewing on black centres, and sewing poppies onto the cascade.
It has been an enormous privilege to bring together so many of all ages from across all five villages - from the primary schools in the parish through to older people some of whom are nonagenarians. There has been lots of fun and friendships made and deepened as our community of makers has worked together, sometimes over ‘coffees and poppies’, ‘pub and poppies’, ‘prosecco and poppies’ and many other creative ways of meeting up, with needles of one sort or another in hand.
Poppies are widely recognised as the flowers of Remembrance, because so many grew on the battlefields of WW1: the stark contrast of the poppies alongside the horrors of war and conflict, when so many thousands were killed. We proudly wear poppies to remember and honour the fallen, (and honour our armed forces still striving for peace in our world today.)
West Weald Parish is grateful to Sussex Community Foundation for a grant to buy the supplies for the project and to Transparency Cleaning Services for their help along the way. Please do visit St Mary’s Church, Slaugham to enjoy the display (postcode RH17 6AQ) . As you do so, reflect on the huge sacrifice the soldiers made, ultimately bringing about peace. If you wish to contribute to the work of the Royal British Legion which supports servicemen and women and their families, the Poppy Cascade JustGiving Page is: www.justgiving.com/page/west-weald-parish-poppies