Shropshire market hall unveils moving wall of remembrance featuring 1,000 handmade poppies

A wall of remembrance featuring 1,000 handmade poppies has been unveiled at Ellesmere Market Hall, bringing together the local community in a moving tribute to those who lost their lives in conflict.

The historic market hall, in Scotland Street, has been transformed into a place of reflection ahead of Remembrance Day, with poppies created by market traders, schoolchildren, community groups and members of the public.

The colourful installation features poppies made using a wide variety of materials and techniques, including knitting, crochet, sewing, painting and metalwork.

Among the display is an old Royal Artillery battledress jacket and tin helmet, which were recently discovered gathering dust in a storeroom at the market and have now been given pride of place.

The project was the idea of Mary Gater, who runs creative stall The Makers’ Nest alongside fellow artist Louise Higginbottom. Both women have family members who served in the Armed Forces, with connections stretching back to the First World War.

Mary said the age and history of the building had inspired her to create a memorial celebrating the lives of those connected to the market who had been affected by war.

“Given the age of the building and the length of time that there’s been a market on this site, I got to thinking about the people who’d passed through the doors and who would have been affected by war in some way. That was the inspiration behind creating a memorial,” she said.

An appeal for handmade poppies was launched in September and soon, organisers were overwhelmed with donations.

Contributions have come from across the community, including Ellesmere Primary School, Ellesmere Rainbows, community organisation Our Space, market traders and visitors.

Ellesmere Library also donated poppies originally created by members of the public for its 2018 Flowers of Peace community project.

Mary said the enthusiasm and effort shown by the younger contributors had been particularly moving.

“When Louise, fellow trader Emma and I were putting up the children’s poppies, all three of us got quite emotional because they had put so much effort into them.”

Pupils at Ellesmere Primary School took part in a special project exploring the significance of Remembrance Day, commemoration and the history of conflict.

The school’s artist in residence, Louise Redhead, said more than 350 children participated in a dedicated poppy-making day, with each class taking its turn at a workshop.

“It was a fantastic day and the children worked so hard. It’s a marvellous display and it makes me very proud of all the children,” she said.

The school also created colourful friezes which have helped extend the original installation beyond the market hall wall.

Mary said the initial idea had been to create a single wall display, but the number of contributions meant the project grew considerably.

The discovery of the military uniform and helmet was another unexpected addition.

“One of the traders mentioned they had seen an old Army uniform in there. We don’t know why it was there, and we’d like to find out more about it,” Mary said.

The uniform is believed to date from the 1940s or 1950s. One theory is that it may have been left behind by a shop of curiosities run by a local historian in the market around 50 years ago.

Bob McBride, chairman of the Ellesmere and District Royal British Legion, praised the installation and the community effort behind it.

He said the display was both moving and beautiful, adding that he was particularly impressed by the involvement of the town's younger generation.

“It’s very important that the message of Remembrance is passed on to the younger generation. The schools in Ellesmere have been very good at letting us in to talk to them. The reaction of the children has been tremendous.

“If you ask them about the poppy, they now know quite a bit about it. That’s our aim, to help keep Remembrance going.”

Sally Poynton, assistant librarian at Ellesmere Library, said she was delighted that poppies created for the library's 2018 community project had found a new home.

“When I heard that this display was going to happen I came into the market hall and offered all these poppies. There must be 100 plus,” she said.

“Some of these have multiple poppies in them, so it must be up to 200 poppies we have donated. Hopefully, they will be used again every year.”

The organisers have now agreed that the poppy wall will become an annual feature at Ellesmere Market Hall, with plans for the installation to grow bigger each year.