Southampton’s Tight-Knit Community marks Remembrance 2022

Over three thousand knitted and crocheted poppies will decorate the Cenotaph in Watts Park this year thanks to the generous and creative residents across Southampton

Southampton City Council first asked residents to ‘get their knit on’ in early October and since then an impressive 3193 poppies have been made by people from all over the city. Numerous volunteers, community groups and The Senior Saints at Saints Foundation made this possible.

The poppies will be placed into storage and used year after year to decorate the Cenotaph each November to mark Remembrance.

The council and our Libraries Teams worked closely with Southampton Scrapstore for the entirety of the project. The Scrap Store provided some of the materials for the knitting workshops across the city throughout Libraries Week in October.

Volunteers from Woolston Libraries and Southampton Scrapstore sewed the thousands of poppies onto large pieces of netting to create the display panels. The panels will then dress the Cenotaph ahead of Remembrance.

The Lord Mayor of Southampton, Councillor Jacqui Rayment said:

“I am totally overwhelmed by the number of poppies that members of our communities have created and donated in such a short space of time. Once again, our brilliant city has come together and for such an important cause. Each year, Southampton joins the millions of people across Britain to remember those that gave their lives for our country. I’m looking forward to attending the service to reflect and give thanks. Please do join us on Sunday 13 November as Southampton Remembers.”

Two of the volunteers, Susan Wall and Georgina Glover, spend lots of their free time knitting poppies to fund-raise for the Southampton and Lyndhurst Poppy Appeals. Between them they knitted an incredible one-hundred poppies.

Mrs Wall said:

“I really enjoy knitting and to know that the poppies raise money for a good cause makes me happy. When my daughter Sarah, who works hard to raise money for the local poppy appeals each year, told me some of the poppies had been donated to the Lord Mayor for the Cenotaph in Southampton I was over the moon. I’m looking forward to seeing them on display.”

Read the latest news article about Southampton’s Remembrance Service and Parade.

Find out more about Southampton’s Remembrance Service and Parade on Visit Southampton.